RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Sindre Kaspersen Russian screenwriter and director Alexandr Sokurov's twelfth feature film, his second film in a planned trilogy about human relations which was preceded by "Mother and Son" (1997), was shot on locations in Lisbon, Portugal and St. Petersburg, Russia and is a French, Russian and German co-production which was written by Russian screenwriter Sergey Potepalov. It tells the story about a middle-aged father who has been forced to retire and transferred from the military where he was involved in military actions. He now lives in a rooftop apartment with his young son who is about to enter the military. Though seemingly happy he is deeply troubled by his memories of his wife who died at a young age. His unexperienced and ardent son worships him and strives for his attention and affection, but every time the father looks at his son, he sees the face of his everlasting love, the mother of his son.This slow-paced and distinctly directed film about a close to ethereal relationship between a father and a son during a summer, is a poetic, dream-like and visually prominent drama which examines themes like coming-of-age, family relations, love, grief and reconciliation. Marked and reinforced by it's fine and colorful cinematography by the directors frequent collaborator Alexander Burov and the production design by Nataliya Kochergina where the use of light becomes a character in itself, this humane parable literally paints a romantic, reflective and nostalgic portrayal of a heartbroken man who hangs on to feelings from the past which attachés him to his son who rejuvenates these feelings, but also prevents him from being the father his son, who is not ready to cut loose from his father, wants him to be.As in Alexandr Sokurov's "Mother and Son" (1997), the use of sound increases the films emotional gravity, the atmosphere has a significant presence and the depiction of the relationship between the two main characters is very intimate and has a rare emotional depth. An artful, timeless and compassionate film with unrestrained acting performances by non-professional actors Andrey Shchetinin and Aleksey Neymyshev, which gained the FIPRESCI Prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.

yofriend-1 This film is bound to cause extreme reactions, either total rejection or total enchantment. Much confusion is caused by Sokurov's unusually intimate portrayal of a father/son relationship. Rather than encouraging a homosexual interpretation, the film is a meditation on the fundamental relationship of father and son. If the viewer is willing to follow the film's slow pace and the almost mythical story, he/she will be rewarded by stunningly beautiful cinematography and a deeply emotional experience. Especially male viewers may find themselves invigorated after watching the film - it's hard to say why; maybe because inside of us, there's a deep longing for the love and life-force of the father.

mickeymcgowan The film is slow and maddening with a dream like feeling, perhaps as a metaphor for the unfulfilled erotic but forbidden love between a father and his son. I think the viewer feels the erotic attraction, and lack of sexual fulfillment, caused by the physical and psychological attachment and detachment of the the boy and his father. This is a taboo subject, the young man's sexual fantasy, towards dad, and the father's homoerotic attraction to his son. I applaud the presentation of this subject, after all what male has not had an admiration for a successful, physically beautiful, and loving father, or coach, or teacher. This film explores this admiration at a deeper and physical level which is portrayed as dreamlike, perhaps because these fantasies are in fact only never realized desires, which exist only in unconscious dreams.Although the film attempts to bring us this subject for both exposure and discussion, the film is torture because the subject is taboo and we'd rather not talk about it, and because there is only a lot of mental masturbation with no orgasm. And that is torture for all souls.

mgphd This is an extraordinary film that explores an area still barely touched by artists and other, academic psychologists: the father-son bond, its complexity, ambivalence, pathos, and depth. All are illuminated by the director, Alexander Sokurov. The text is spare; the cinematography is heartbreakingly beautiful. (I have not seen a man's face explored as intimately on screen since Olivier Martinez was filmed in THE CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC.) Every man who has had a father must see this film. It speaks of what Nicole Oxenhandler calls the eros of parenthood but now at the level of the male's late adolescence. Sokurov understands the tension between love and rivalry that is at the core of the son-father relationship. Like the relationship itself, the audio is quiet, with the occasional outburst. Sokurov confirms that a young man learns how to love (women, other men, eventually his own sons and daughters) by loving his father, in early boyhood (which we only have hints about in the film) and then again at the time when son and father must separate. Fathers, take you son to see this film.