After watching this a second time, I wanted to jot down a word or two or three--especially after reading some critics' reviews.Films have such a unique effect on each individual that I don't really vibe with the word "review" when reading people's comments. I always view them rather as our opinions, feelings and interpretations of a movie--I know that's not an earth-shattering new thought or anything...Thank god for films like this. Amongst the world of overly-saturated big-budge moneymakers, I relish these types of films, always have. Sure, this may not be the most forthcoming and understandable film right out the gate; but with an open mind and a desire for unique storytelling, this film can speak volumes to a viewer. The cinematography (esp. close-up shots) and acting alone are some of the finest pieces of art I've seen. I'm also slightly biased as I am a mad fan of all three main cast members; their performances are so incredibly real as they disappear so seamlessly into their characters that I can be truly convinced they are living this story.Each character is so tragically beautiful and strong, but it's Mélanie's character that I resonate with the most--being young and dealing with an illness, trying to mask it and stay strong to reach whatever goal it is you can possible accomplish to heal yourself. I have lived my own version of this, and she performed it f*cking beautifully.Yes I had some trouble following along the first time through, but I just went with it--there was something about this film that I was OK doing that, letting the story guide me and not inserting my judgments along the way, which is not always the case with me and other movies. It's hard to explain. Even if it's a challenge to grasp the overarching themes/meaning of a film, identifying with or relating to just one element in a story can be enough to strike a cord and change something about a person, in the way they think or go about life or, etc. That's the beauty of storytelling. Also, after reading other comments, it sounds like I may have not viewed the director's cut, but a 15-min shorter version, which is a bummer because I was feeling like something wasn't being shown between Cillian's & Mélanie's characters when it seemed like they became incredibly close through their journey together towards the end. I could tell there was probably something going on between them, but the other scenes alluding to this weren't enough for me. Hoping to see a non-US version eventually.

This movie is like a carcass with no bones... a lovely building with no foundation... music notes without a staff. The scenery is beautiful, the cast is superb, but so much is left to the audience to figure out on their own, that you are often left scratching your head. You are never given a reason to care about the mother or son... there is little depth to their characters, it's very "surface", like the ice that appears ubiquitously in the movie, and in some cases, in the characters' behavior.. Suddenly the mother seems to be saying goodbye to her son, and you're like "WTF?" Aloft is like a book that someone has randomly torn pages out of. And the anticipated ending/reunion? I blinked and the credits rolled!This would have been a terrific movie if it had been longer, more fleshed out, and had an ending worthy of putting all the time, money and effort into making a movie to begin with.

The acting is fine, Jennifer Connelly is always good as is Cillian Murphy and the kid-actors were fine as well.Visually it's also a nice looking movie, with limited colours that creates and cold and melancholic feeling which suits the movie just fine, because it is rather melancholic.The movie though is just good enough not to be bad, but far from great.Needless to say Jennifer Connelly's character is very spiritual and believes in healing, I believe her character is supposed to be Native American although I am not quite sure about this but a lot of her spiritual beliefs stem from them if nothing else.So it helps if you have some sort of interest in that or at least an open mind because it's not always very up front and direct in it's approach to tell the story with plenty of metaphors and subtlety more so than direct big orchestrated dramatic scenes.The blu-ray version (at least the one I watched could possibly differ in some countries) is 97 minutes, and not 112 minutes like it says on IMDb.From what I've heard the version shown on festivals was indeed 112 minutes but it wasn't received that well so they cut it down to 97 minutes for the blu-ray/DVD market.And although that caught me off guard initially, I'm not quite sure if it would be able to sustain my interest for 112 minutes so this could be one of those times where the cut down version is actually better, although I of course can't be sure about this.

This was a good watch but there were so many parts that didn't make sense. After watching the film, I came online to read what people had to say and behold! I was right, some key parts were missing from the US theatrical version, at least fifteen minutes of footage was left on the cutting room floor and I feel they should have at least left in the part where grown up Ivan (Cillian Murphy) and the journalist (Mélanie Laurent) had an affair. It would have explained why he suddenly became affectionate towards her (this alone changed the course of the movie without rhyme or reason) in the final quarter of the film as well as made the story come full circle with the issue of abandonment that seemed to plague Ivan's lineage. The main characters were mostly unlikable but the actors behind them were good enough in the roles to keep you interested in what happens next. All in all it was definitely worth the watch and not as bad as it was reviewed.