Alicia I love this movie so much
Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
webster7-636-375461 This movie was indeed well-acted, but I found it too slow moving and depressing to possibly recommend to anyone other than acting students. It just didn't hold my interest. I wasn't compelled to care about what happened to the main character. It's a carefully crafted view of an old woman's life. Realistic in her perspective as well as the perspective of others with whom she interacts. It's interesting that a review must be at least 10 lines in order to be accepted as a legitimate review. So much for focusing on brevity and quality of content rather than quantity of text. Seems quite silly actually.
maryszd The Whisperers is about a profoundly lonely and deluded old woman Mrs. Ross (Edith Evans), who lives in a shabby flat stuffed with old bottles and newspapers. She's paranoid and imagines she hears voices and is obsessed with the sounds that come from the flat of the interracial couple that live upstairs. She has a rich fantasy life where she imagines she is a bishop's daughter waiting for her father's inheritance. Her sleazy son Charlie comes by and hides some stolen loot in her apartment. She finds the money and is thunderstruck, convinced that the money is indeed her long lost inheritance. Unfortunately, she boasts about it to the wrong person and is robbed and left for dead. After a slow recovery, Social Services manages to contact her husband Archie and reunite them. Her husband is grifter, forced for once in his life to be responsible. She returns to her tidied-up flat. She's looked after, but she's robbed of the paranoia and fantasies that she used to dignify her impoverished life. Archie steals money from her handbag and gaslights her into thinking she lost it. Archie doesn't stick around for long, so in the end she's back to her usual solitary life of fantasizing and hoarding, but it's more nourishing than her depressing life with Archie. And she does have a social safety net that is more than most older Americans have today. A kindly clerk at the welfare office, Mr. Conrad (Douglas Sim) cares about her personally and is, in a way, the son she never had. As the other reviewers have pointed out, the film is filled with melodramatic cops and robbers plot elements that detract from the engrossing story of this aging woman. Edith Evan's acting is extraordinary. Highly recommended.
budmichaelfla DAME Edith Evans is superb in this, as she was in all her roles, but never better than this, playing a delusional, paranoid senior who hear voices. This film is a crowning glory to an extremely long and distinguished career. It's a great role for a great actress.She displayed not only keen emotional acting but she also showed us what physical acting is all about with her appropriate body moves and facial manipulations. I think this was her only Academy Award nominated role for Best Actress, but she won many other awards for this excellent performance. I miss her portrayals even today. She often played roles in films of the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Her place in British cinema is perhaps handed down to the likes of Julie Christie, or Cate Blanchett, but only time will tell if their careers can span the length of time that Evans' did. Buddy
sol- There are many good qualities in this study of paranoia, loneliness, ageing and exploitation, among other themes, with its virtues ranging from a great mood setting score by John Barry, to excellent camera angles and aptly stark sets, all of which fit in with the general atmosphere of the film. In an Oscar nominated role, Edith Evans also gives off a fine performance, and there is some good work with extended dissolves to edit between different shots. It is not an easy film to like and admire in spite of its virtues though. There are excesses of melodrama thrown in, such as cops and robbers, and these subplots serve to distract from the protagonist. The lack of dialogue at times is distracting in itself too, and there are also odd characters in small segments thrown in here and there that do nothing at all. The dual spoken narration is also rather awkward. Yes, there are some things that can be complained about here - one could also complain that the nastiness is excessive. There is still a lot that makes this a good film however, and these virtues definitely show through. It is an excellent film, but it may not satisfy all tastes. Bryan Forbes is a great director, and almost all his films are worth a look if one is interested in good directing regardless of the plot or characters.
