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RATING:   
SINGAPORE : It's about a single dad who struggles to become a hands-on parent to his two sons after his wife passes away from cancer. So right off the bat, you'd assume that it's going to be one of those maudlin Hallmark TV movie weepers.
But when the father in question is Clive Owen, who cut his teeth playing dashing, suave thinking heroes with crisp sartorial judgment in actioners, you expect (and receive) so much more.
The chiselled rogue turns in a touching and likable performance as Joe, the sportswriter struggling to move on from his grief while he adopts a "no rules-no punishment-no responsibility" style of child-rearing to bring up six-year-old Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) and teenage son Harry (George MacKay) from a previous marriage.
Like director Scott Hicks' other movies (Shine and Snow Falling on Cedars), the cinematography is drenched with beautiful, sun-kissed vistas. However, as hard as he tries to seamlessly blend pathos with realism, he occasionally veers into a potentially mushy set-up when he shamelessly sets Joe chatting regularly with his dead wife.
Thankfully, the strong performances all round, along with balance of humanity, humour and despair keep the film from being cloying.
The children's performances are particularly impressive, with instinctive naturalism without the usual over-saccharine cuteness.
Inspired by a memoir by Simon Carr, the plot actually follows a incredibly routine outline. But it saves itself from falling into the Too Predictably Obvious category with a neat screenplay that straddles that fine line between over-sentimentality and nuanced sensitivity.
This is one-man tearjerker that somehow never makes you feel like you've been manipulated to cry, and that my boys, is saying a lot.
- TODAY/rs
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