Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Ben Whishaw is fantastic as Tom. He really acts insanity well. Youinstantly fall in love with Tom and want to comfort him for all he hasbeen through. He is really believable. The whole film has a very interesting cinematic style using somevery artistic shots and angles making the film, overall, interestingto watch just for the style. There is a problem with the sound as some of it is too quiet. Thecredits have the sound of the woods alone, which immediatelygets you interested and 'set up' for the film. I think everyone should see this film, even if you may not like it, forthe experience of an interesting British film.

Films like this scare the s**t out of me. I thought it was all a bit seedy with the naked dancing in the woods, the tree filled with bible pages, the self harm and the forceful teacher. But when the dad opens his flies to his son you know there is something seriously disturbing about the film. Along with this there is the fact that Tom talks like a toddler and misses out necessary words in his sentences, and the fact he likes chucking himself from trees and falls over every few minutes just for the crack...as do all abused teenagers I'm sure.The makers of the film also only seem to know one scene transition, fade to bright light, which I'll admit is effective, but it's no Starwipe thats for sure.Aside from the aforementioned disturbing stuff I found the film to be fairly strong and almost uplifting in places to see two people who have had a crap time of things find a sort of happiness with each other, though this is shattered eventually. The funeral scene is also fairly strong and well done, however I find it hard to believe that a teenage girl could move a 6ft + coffin with a dead weight in it with such ease.A stellar performance from Monsieur hedgehog as well who awoke us all to the pitch cry of the pained hedgehog. It struck me that it would have been hilarious when Tom puts the hedgehog out of his misery if he'd of gone "Oh s**t he's stuck in my foot!" and hopped around for a while.Overall I give this film 6 out of 10 as it loses marks for being disturbing and for not having any automatic weaponry or busty women.In conclusion...stop falling in the lake...you'll catch cold...and fade to bright light.

'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'.

Cheap and manipulative. This film has no heart.It's also got dire dialogue, unconvincing characters and a preposterous, or rather non-existent, story. It just lurches from bad to worse in a cynical effort to wrench some kind of emotion from an insincere and unengaging hysterion-afest!And the HEDGEHOG!!!!How many cheap shots can a film take? The hedgehog, by the way, gave the most convincing and watchable performance in this ninety-minute cringe-athon.If you have considered watching this film, don't. I'm sorry but I cannot find a single redeeming feature to this movie. It scores a big, fat ZERO with me. Strictly for sub-Dogma knicker-wetters. Yawneroony!Still, if you liked Dancing In The Dark...