My Brother Tom (2001)

Simply Perfect

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is a beautiful movie, perhaps not in a purely aesthetic sense, it has the hand-held camera and no shiny, polished or pretty cinematography, but if it did, this film would lose so much of what makes it raw, real and ultimately beautiful. Most films are pure escapism, meant for enjoyment, or thoughtful pondering, this film feels like a very personal one. It's not a fast-paced, exciting blockbuster but what it is is a patient, careful, beautifully crafted tale of abuse, and love of nature and spirit. It is a harsh look at how an adult can damage and hurt a child, and the performances from both leads are to be commended; a wonderful, almost fairy tale like story that perfectly captures the innocence of youth, a joyous love of nature and wonder that can be found in it and in other people. I loved this film. It broke my heart and had be sobbing but I loved in nonetheless, maybe I loved it because it made me really feel. Beautiful.

I found this film very disturbing. I had to watch it until the end.The acting was such that I had to remind myself that it was acting sometimes. I feel that some actors are very brave to take on certain parts.I think that in some darker places in the world (e.g. USA), elements of the population would confuse the actor with the part and abuse him. Congratulations to all involved for an excellent performance. The tension is never "Watch out behind you" but "Please, please, not that".If this film causes just one adult to reflect on how his actions may damage a child then it is very worthwhile.

Don't understand why here are so many bad comments. Yes, the camera was maybe little unusual, but the story goes to your mind. This film gives you something to think about. After this film you will love yourself, at least i did. A MUST SEE FILM, SO SEE IT! ***** out of *****

'Teenage love is rarely this painful.' said the blurb outside the cinema. 'My Brother Tom' is a film full of pain and sadness. This film has not been written for fun, as entertainment, nor as a job of work, but has been wrenched out of the reality of someone's suffering. It shows life from the perspective of a child who has experienced and seen things more painful than her tender years can accommodate. But it does not leave one without hope. The director has been courageously faithful to the script and the challenging roles are fulfilled without self-consciousness. The film bears a degree of honesty that is rarely seen in life, let alone on screen, and perhaps for some viewers it will be too much. 'Man cannot bear too much reality'. It also carries an exhilarating sense of freedom - the two children have been let down by society, and understandably and with true childlike spirit they abandon it. They choose for their home the 'good wood', and the film's sense of hope comes from nature. Society may be 'f***** up', but mother nature is a refuge, full of nurture and protection and love.Theologically speaking - for though in a sense iconoclastic the film is not secular - it is the product of an age in which the Church has become a shrine to its own conventions, and has lost sight of the 'living spirit' which was once its source. Thus far from being offensive to the religious, 'My Brother Tom' is on the side of the Spirit, desperately wanting to resurrect the Spirit from the sepulchre of conventional 'religion'.As for the hand held camera, I did not once find it an irritation or a distraction, as I did occasionally, for example, in 'Festen'. On the contrary, it suited the film, adding to its wildness and immediacy in a way I never really believed that this technique could.If you regard film as primarily for relaxation and entertainment, this is clearly not a film for you. If, however, you are someone ready to wrestle with all the truth and pain that this world holds, and if you regard film as a fit medium for this wrestling, then do not miss 'My Brother Tom'.