A brave effort, certainly different, but all too emphatically an allegory.
Comment
02/09/06
All the Little Animals (1999)
62
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:13
Rotten:8
Average Rating:5.4/10
Synopsis: The tale of a mentally challenged young man named Bobby (Christian Bale), who runs away from home to escape an abusive stepfather (Daniel Benzali) who has been tormenting and slaughtering his... [More]
Starring: Christian Bale, John Hurt, Daniel Benzali, James Faulkner
Director: Jeremy Thomas
Reviews for All the Little Animals
The ingredients all seem to be there for a rich, emotionally engrossing movie experience, but the storytelling flair and directorial touch are not.
04/03/02
Quite the off-kilter, half-baked eco-sermon to begin with, Thomas's movie crumbles in its last quarter or so like a stack of supermarket cans.
01/01/00
[It] refuses to reduce its story to simple terms, and the visible story seems like a manifestation of dark and secret undercurrents. Even the ending, which some will no doubt consider routine revenge, has a certain subterranean irony.
01/01/00
Top CriticThe screenplay is so lacking in narrative sensibilities, it's difficult to enumerate all its failings.
01/01/00
It moves from a Cinderella fairytale with Rain Man pathos to the good-versus-evil realm of daytime soap operas (minus the sexual content).
06/05/02
Would seem hokey if it didn't have powerful, extraordinary central performances and cinematography that lends the English landscape around Cornwall a mythical cast.
01/01/00
Top CriticIf you can allow for one irrational and unbelievable scene involving Bobby and Summers' trip to London, you're left with a decent, small- scale movie, perhaps more suitable for video than the large screen.
01/01/00
Christian Bale is utterly sympathetic and engaging as Bobby. He convincingly communicates both the simplicity and chaos of his character's personality and gives the film a strong emotional core.
12/06/05
Bale nimbly walks a fine line between Bobby's handicap and an increasingly mature comprehension of what he must do to survive.
09/09/08
Top CriticBased on a 1969 novel by the late Walker Hamilton, this moody film is ravishingly beautiful to look at and refreshingly unlike the glib, movie-centric crime thrillers so popular with younger first-time directors.
05/17/09
Odd and banal.
07/21/05
Interesting despite its hipster crypticism and an imperfect finale. Is Christian Bale in every film Lions Gate has made?
01/01/00
The adoption of 19th-century-melodrama conventions seems motivated mainly by a desire to tap into the emotional intensity they offer. I was enthralled by these tactics, but some viewers might gag.
01/01/00
A strangely intriguing, darkly made, psychological allegory based on the late Walker Hamilton's only novel.
01/01/00
Click to read the article.
12/31/04
Given his uncompromising work with the likes of Roeg, Bertolucci and Cronenberg, Thomas' directorial debut is surprisingly bland.
05/17/09
No review available.
08/20/05
No review available.
07/26/02
No review available.
08/15/07
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