There is one little problem with the Argentine drama Empty Nest, an all-too-convincing film about a man suffering from a middle-aged malaise: Nothing of interest happens.
Comment
07/03/09
Empty Nest (2009)
53
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:9
Rotten:8
Average Rating:5.8/10
Synopsis: When their daughter leaves home, an Argentine couple starts to question their lives and marriage. While Martha (Cecilia Roth, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) goes back to school to cope, her husband, Leonardo... [More]
Starring: Oscar Martinez, Cecilia Roth, Arturo Goetz, Ines Efron
Director: Daniel Burman
Reviews for Empty Nest
1 - 17 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Empty Nest is light in tone and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and the humour is generally subtle and grown up.
07/03/09
Burman's fifth feature is too slight and uneven to fully satisfy, even though it does have much of the same wit and insight as Lost Embrace and Family Law, two previous films that earned the director many comparisons to Woody Allen.
07/03/09
A leisurely, genial look at a man escaping from his insecurities into a surreal fantasy life, keeping the audience guessing what is real, until he floats into maturity.
05/05/09
In the end, it all can't help feeling a little slight, more a pleasant wade into a writer's neurotic playground than a satisfyingly deep dip.
05/01/09
Top CriticThe script doesn't offer anything especially new, but Burman infuses the film with innovative lensing and capable acting that should draw in viewers.
04/24/09
Tasteful and intelligent to a fault, but critically lacking in truly absorbing excitement.
04/24/09
In Empty Nest, a couple is forced to question their identities and relationships now that parenting is not their most immediate concern.
04/24/09
Top CriticAn Argentinian film that offers some fresh twists and slants on the challenges of middle-age.
04/23/09
The longer the film’s fiftysomething playwright watches his marriage wither, his kids grow up and his teeth rot, the more psychological acuity gives way to the usual obsessing over loss and nubile females.
04/22/09
Empty Nest comes thickly and pleasurably detailed with the minutiae of domesticity.
04/22/09
This sense of unreality, this feeling of being ill at ease in one's surroundings is communicated via Burman's off-kilter, rhythmic filmmaking.
04/20/09
Empty Nest doesn't offer anything new in the style Ingmar Bergman made so famous, but the film captures your heart thanks to the fine acting of its two main characters and Burman's deft hand.
03/12/09
A generally absorbing Walter Mitty fantasy, Argentine style.
03/03/09
It's one of those films whose appeal grows post-screening. Fluently shot with frequent but not jerky handheld camera shots and engagingly edited, Empty Nest is discreetly stylish.
10/18/08
Playing at just over 90 minutes but feeling twice as long, Burman's latest attempts several ill-judged leaps into fantasy that are meant to reflect a man's psychological confusion in deep middle age.
10/18/08
Top CriticUna comedia dramática algo melancólica sobre la crisis de los 50, desde el punto de vista de un hombre cuyos hijos han dejado el hogar. Estupenda labor de Oscar Martínez.
07/30/08
1 - 17 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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