I had never heard of this movie before, and only watched it because David Bowie had top billing. Complete untruth in advertising: if he was in it for more than ten minutes' screen time, that's a lot. That said, he was delightful even in this tiny wee part: gentle, amusing, philosophical, hugely professional as always. He looked amazingly great and even looked hot raking leaves. Which I never imagined David Bowie doing, ever. So the 6 points I give it here are all for him.
The plot itself is full of more holes than a pound of Gruyere. We only see Mr. Rice in flashback: no idea of how he died or why, or of what so incredible a being is doing living out his last days in a tiny Canadian town. When we discover his secret (he's 395 years old), we are given no explanation of how he achieved that (presumably as a result of the magic potion he leaves the young boy who is the cancer-patient protagonist) or why he has decided to not renew his swigging of said potion. The kid, socked with all these revelations (for which we have not been prepared by the slightest bit of magical foreshadowing), is remarkably blasé about it: Oh, ho-hum, my late neighbor Mr. Rice was 400 years old, cool beans! And he shows not the least bit of curiosity about it. And why on earth (or under it) the charming Mr. Rice decided to make a grave robber out of his little neighbor is beyond me.
All in all, the lessons are trite, the children are vile and violent little thugs and bullies who badly need a good thrashing, and David Bowie must have just wanted a few light days in Vancouver. He's always worth watching, though. This could have been an odd, charming little movie if it had been about Mr. Rice and not about the kid.
The plot itself is full of more holes than a pound of Gruyere. We only see Mr. Rice in flashback: no idea of how he died or why, or of what so incredible a being is doing living out his last days in a tiny Canadian town. When we discover his secret (he's 395 years old), we are given no explanation of how he achieved that (presumably as a result of the magic potion he leaves the young boy who is the cancer-patient protagonist) or why he has decided to not renew his swigging of said potion. The kid, socked with all these revelations (for which we have not been prepared by the slightest bit of magical foreshadowing), is remarkably blasé about it: Oh, ho-hum, my late neighbor Mr. Rice was 400 years old, cool beans! And he shows not the least bit of curiosity about it. And why on earth (or under it) the charming Mr. Rice decided to make a grave robber out of his little neighbor is beyond me.
All in all, the lessons are trite, the children are vile and violent little thugs and bullies who badly need a good thrashing, and David Bowie must have just wanted a few light days in Vancouver. He's always worth watching, though. This could have been an odd, charming little movie if it had been about Mr. Rice and not about the kid.