it's ultimately impossible to rise above the overly melodramatic script. The world doesn't really need another wicked stepmother, after all.
Comment
10/28/08
Mister Foe (2008)
72 %
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 43
Rotten:17
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus: Carefully balanced between the dark and the dreamy, Mister Foe is a charged coming-of-age story with whimsy and bite.
Theatrical Release: Sep 5, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: MISTER FOE is director David MacKenzie's offbeat film adaptation of Peter Jinks's coming-of-age story centered on the unlikely protagonist of Hallam Foe, excellently portrayed by Jamie Bell (BILLY ELLIOT). A troubled young man beset... [More]
Starring: Jamie Bell, Ciaran Hinds, Sophia Myles, Jamie Sives
Director: David Mackenzie
DVD Info
Reviews for Mister Foe
Grumpy Glaswegians going at it are once again the focus of David ("Young Adam") Mackenzie's bleak and dreary -- but not wholly uninteresting -- drama.
10/23/08
Click to read the article
10/18/08
[A] prettily photographed but relationally science-fictional coming-of-age blather.
10/18/08
Top Critic The final installment of Mackenzie's 'sex trilogy' is so strenuously edgy it's tiresome.
10/09/08
This Scottish film often pushes for realism, though its stylish tones fall back on whimsy.
09/26/08
While the film playfully telegraphs its inspirations, Mister Foe never persuasively comes together as a dark fable about an adolescent misfit stuck in loss.
09/19/08
[Director David] Mackenzie has reined in the strangeness to deliver a conventional, if better than average, mystery.
09/18/08
By the end of "Hallam Foe," you've nearly forgotten his all-too-regular boy development. Now you're wondering, what's Kate doing when he's not looking?
09/12/08
Didn't I review this coming-of-age picture back in the spring when it was called Charlie Bartlett?
09/11/08
Jamie Bell in his most memorable outing since Billy Elliot, as a Peeping Tom acting upon Oedipal urges in a dysfunctional family drama from Scotland.
09/06/08
A worthy addition to Holden Caulfield's coming-of-age subgenre of off-kilter teenage boys let loose in big cities. Bell and Myles give terrific performances.
09/05/08
Although it's nice to see Mackenzie find uplift in the erotic, what helps drive Mister Foe is how deftly he turns chasm into intimacy between Bell and Myles, both of whom give sharply observed, charismatic portrayals.
09/05/08
Top Critic Jamie Bell gives a watchable performance in this self-conscious, coming-of-age drama, though the film's overall effect is best described as David Lynch lite.
09/05/08
Jamie Bell has his best role since Billy Elliot in Mister Foe, a darkly comic tale of a twisted teen on the cusp of adulthood.
09/05/08
Director David Mackenzie's complex story is never sure exactly what tone to strike.
09/05/08
You find yourself wishing that what happened in Edinburgh stayed in Edinburgh.
09/05/08
Top CriticLatest News for Mister Foe
November 02, 2008:
Baret DVD News: A movie about a Scottish Peeping Tom who is sufficiently demented to give even Peeping Toms a bad name, it seems to be a lot less about fetish and voyeurism, than warped emotional espionage as pathological mommy love. 
More...
September 08, 2008:
Teen Peeping Tom acts upon oedipal urges in dysfunctional family drama from Scotland.
More...
September 03, 2008:
A movie about a Scottish Peeping Tom who is sufficiently demented to give even Peeping Toms a bad name, it seems to be a lot less about fetish and voyeurism, than warped emotional espionage as pathological mommy love.
More...
August 30, 2008:
A movie about a Scottish Peeping Tom who is sufficiently demented to give even Peeping Toms a bad name, it seems to be a lot less about fetish and voyeurism, than warped emotional espionage as pathological mommy love.
More...
Related Forums for Mister Foe
An Exciting Coming-Of-Age Tale Willing To See Its Hero As Somebody Normal
by: MH and THE MOVIES 9/13
by: MH and THE MOVIES 9/13
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
 88% |
Hellboy II: The Golden… |
| 89% |
Kung Fu Panda |
 53% |
Get Smart |
| 61% |
Journey to the Center … |
| 67% |
The Incredible Hulk |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 96% |
WALL-E |
| 83% |
Tropic Thunder |
| 63% |
Sisterhood of the Trav… |
| 88% |
Gonzo: The Life and Wo… |
| 93% |
Encounters At the End … |
