Customer Reviews

Romulus, My Father

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Raimond Gaita is not a name widely known to the world outside Australia where he serves as a professor of philosophy, writing extensively on 'skepticism (moral, of other minds and of the external world), on the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of psychology, on aspects of political philosophy (collective responsibility, the role of moral considerations in politics, genocide and the alleged uniqueness of the Holocaust), on education (the nature of teaching as a vocation, the role of love in learning and the plight of the universities) and on Wittgenstein's philosophy of mind and language'. After this filmed version of his memoir ROMULUS, MY FATHER, he may well gain a larger audience. This low budget film uses fewer words than silences and actions to depict the childhood of Gaita in the period around 1960. For many it may seem an aimless, prolonged, sad film, but for others it will deliver a life force in a sensitive child that is indomitable.

Romulus Gaita (Eric Bana) immigrated to Australia from Yugoslavia with his wife Christina (Franka Potente) and their son Raimond (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Romulus works as a blacksmith and farmer to support his family: Christina is not happy with the confinement of marriage and motherhood and finds frequent reasons to have promiscuous jaunts away from her small house and maternal duties. Romulus and Raimond are very close and find ways to exist without Christina, especially when Christina has an extended affair with a family friend Mitru (Russell Dykstra) and has a child by him. Despite warm support from Raimond and his best friend Hora (Marton Csokas), Romulus decompensates and his radical behavior results in his hospitalization in a mental institution. How Raimond's bond with his beloved father endures despite the endless tragedies that befall his 'home' provides the closure of this tender memoir.

Nick Drake provides the screenplay from Gaita's book, Richard Roxburgh directs, Basil Hogios provides the sparse musical score for Geoffrey Simpson's magnificent cinematography of the desolate plains of Australia. But it is the solid performances by Eric Bana and Kodi Smit-McPhee as father and son that make this film so memorable. Grady Harp, April 08

Without going into the plot- most other posts cover it here, I wanted to share my thoughts on this movie as well. It is a sad but very insightful view into a child's experiences as he watches his parents relationship develope into something so depressing and unhopeful. Despite that, I still loved this story because of the performances by the actors. This memoire reminds me of another memoire turned movie "This Boy's Life." The story is depressing the whole way through, but because of the actors/actresses, it becomes more realistic and gives you a reason to care what happens to these people.

Also, i forget the name of the person responsible for the cinematography on this movie, but it is outstanding! I wanted to keep each frame and each shot as a photograph and frame it on my wall, it is that good. The colors and the whole look of the picture, just takes you back to that particular time and place. It gives the sad movie a sense of peace and comfort where you would least expect to find it. I looked it up on IMDB, and seems like he also did the cinematography for Little Women, another movie with an excellent look/feel. Sometimes I would buy a movie to keep just for that reason - its like keeping a photograph book that takes you somewhere else everytime.

This is a very touching movie - It'll have you thinking about it long after the movie is over. And to learn that it was a true story and what has become of that child in the story, gives you assurance that it does have a good ending after all.

Its missing 1 star from perfection beccuase as much as I liked this movie, i dont know how many times i could watch it - even though i plan on buying this movie.

Yesterday, we watched the DVD of Romulus, My Father, which follows Raimond Gaita's memoir of his early life with his father scrupulously. On the way back to Dubai in 2003, I had come across philosopher Gaita's The Philosopher's Dog. I bought it, read it and passed it on to our philosopher son Jeremy (The Ecological Life) to read. Shortly after, Jeremy picked up Gaita's Romulus, My Father, and returned the favor by passing it on to me to read. I found it exceptionally well written and deeply moving.

Let me start by saying that the movie of Romulus, My Father is exquisitely filmed. It's all light and shadows, sepia browns and yellows in the back country of Australia, the movie analogue of those great photographs of the Depression by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. The acting, too, is first rate. Eric Bana (Munich) is a perfect choice for the father, conveying emotion even when still and displaying the essential gravity and weight of Gaita's working class father plays the father. ALL the actors are first rate. The story tells of young Rai's growing up caught between a strong, almost Old Testament father and an emotionally and mentally troubled mother who drifts in and out of the family wreaking havoc wherever she lands. Another virtue of the film is the dramatic use of stillness, which gives the viewer time to let his or her feelings grow of their own accord. The movie won several awards in Australia but received almost no critical notice in this country. That's a shame because it's really good.

"Romulus, My Father" is being touted as an ode to father-son relationships. As portrayed by this film, however, it plays more as a tribute to childhood resilience. The father suffers through incredible loss, but his son seems more profoundly affected by the damaged adults around him. Franka Potente and Eric Bana provide solid performances, but the true star is Kodi McPhee, who has to wrestle with a wide array of emotion. He succeeds completely. There wasn't one false note in his portrayal of the son of a mentally-disturbed mother and an aloof, brooding father. Kodi shows more emotion in one scene than Bana and Potente do in the entire movie.
Bana plays a man who shares a few tender moments with his son on an isolated Australian ranch, but for the most part he remains distant and detached. He rarely smiles, his face carved with worry. His wife returns from hospitalization in a psychiatric institution but doesn't seem improved. She shows affection periodically, but is never consistent in her actions, and spends most of her screen time smoking and staring into space despondently. The movie never explains why she is so disaffected, but it has obviously taken its toll on Bana, who tries to be a good father and husband, but is slowly tortured by her impulsiveness and self-absorbed immaturity. When she has a baby, she ignores its wailing and would rather sit in a trance-like state than feed it. In many ways, the boy is the parent. He survives a marathon of tragedies that would crush most children's psyches.
Among the horrors visited upon this boy are: watching a man exterminating chickens with a shovel because they are diseased, being pummeled by his father because he lied, watching his mother get savagely beaten by a man who can no longer stand her uncaring behavior, having to stay with his mother and try to keep her awake after she overdoses on pills, and almost getting an axe buried in his skull when his father dissociates in a furious rampage and doesn't recognize him. Many moments are brutally honest. One favorite is when the boy gets angry at his father for infidelity and blasts music in the shed, trying to use frantic dancing to show defiance. Later he will try to surface feelings of joy with the music, but finds he cannot. Another moment is when his mother comes to visit and he rebukes her in a restaurant. The boy has grown weary of her childishness and tells a professor at school that he does not want contact with her anymore.
The film does not gloss over the emotional scars inflicted on the boy. A scene at the end involving a rifle shows that he is teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. The movie begins and ends with a simple ritual that provides a flicker of hope for the future. That the boy survives and succeeds in life is a testament to the strength of a child who hasn't reached adulthood yet and is willing to believe that anything can get better with time.

I like movies like this because it shows that no matter how rough or disadvantaged a child's upbringing may be, he or she can overcome it to become a success or even just a reliable citizen. There could hardly be a more mixed up life than that had by little Raimond. This is the story of what he went through growing up with two - or should I say three or four - mixed-up parents.

There are lots of sexual situations, beatings, and bad language so this movie isn't for children. A responsible non-parent might show it to a teenager who is in the same situation as Raimond and then point out how he was able to overcome his upbringing; but, they should be prepared to mentor the teen as well.

After watching this film, I had to ponder for some time about what I had just seen. The tale of Romulus is quite complicated, not only in the things that happen to him directly, but also the bizarre circumstances that he is put in, at the same time. Christina, Romulus' wife, behaves in such an erratic and bizarre way that I would have to concentrate on her character much more so (in order to figure her out) than any of the other film's characters. Rai, the son of these two people, watch bleakly as his family life falls apart before his eyes. Franka Potente and Eric Bana are two of my favorite actors. They have revealed once again, their unique ability to capture a role so passionately and realistically.
Just to warn you, this is not a "Fun Friday Night Movie." It is based on a memoir and the childhood described in it, is one you would never wish upon a child in the past, present, or the future. In fact, I would have to say that this memoir was one of the harshest and most brutal depictions of growing up that I have seen in a long time.

In writing this review, I struggle to digest the film, to wipe my tears and construct a cohesive sentence...

Romulus my Father is a deeply moving story, tracing the path of one family as they struggle to survive as Australian immigrants, a mothers neglect and abandonment, and very great love.

Is the love between mother and son, father and son, husband and wife? It's all kind of hard to say, as in most families.

The heartwarming performance of Raimond as portrayed by our little Aussie actor, and Eric Bana's superbly executed Romulus is never sentimental, always harshly real but compassionately drawn.

I highly recommend this beautiful film, although it is a tearfest and if you have children you'll come away cherishing them all the more.

One explicit scene & moderate coarse language. Not suitable for kids.

Video special features include:
There are a few bells and whistles thrown in behind the scenes with special features from the directors, interviews & commentaries - worth watching.

If you are into father-son relationship. I never had a solid friendship with my father but this film shows not only the father-son relationship aspect of it, but also that special friendship that some fathers lack with their son(s). Eric Bana, my handsome giant, portrayed the father role very well and his son, whoever the actor is, is excellent. I recommend this and another film called Together(Chinese film with subtitle)to anymore that is into films like this.

Eric Bana truly captured the personality of Raimond Gaita's father in this true life story. This film was collaborated with Raimond Gaita, the philosopher and will shake up your soul. So moving and poignant.

Great little movie about the traumas of childhood and childrens' resilient, forgiving nature, dramatically and accurately illustrated in many scenes. No matter what happens, the little boy bounces back. Unfortunately, much of the dialogue is difficult to hear, and there are no English subtitles. Even using headphones doesn't offer that much help.
This is typical of the 'English sound syndrome' (even though the movie is Australian), and I wonder how some movies can even be issued in this condition. Most American movies have at least some measure of re-recording and mixing rather than just pure location sound, not enhanced in any way.