Tom et Thomas

The movie "Tom and Thomas" recently appeared in the Netherlands on DVD and Video.

Due to circumstances I was not able to view this movie in the theatre. I wish I had, because Tom and Thomas is a very good crafted and impressive movie.

Aaron Johnson as Tom/Thomas was a real good choice by Esmé Lammers for this role. It is one of the most impressive performences in acting I have seen in years. It would be ashame if we never heard from Aaron again. I now understand that he frequently performs at the London theaters in plays.

I hope his acting in the new Jackie Chan movie "Shanghai Knights", to be released in February 2003, will be as impressive, or even more impressive than what I saw in "Tom and Thomas".

Sean Bean also performed well, but I think there was not enough room in the movie for him to use all his talent, which is in fact a pity.

It is clear that the film was made by Esmé Lammers together with her husband Dick Maas (a famous movie producer in the Netherlands).

I personally thought before viewing this movie that it would be a very lovely childrens story, but the are in fact a few very exiting moments. I would not recomment to let children up to 8 view this by themselves.

It is clear that a high standard of craftmanship has been used.

Critics in the Netherlands were not long as enthusiastic about this film as me, but I think this movie deserves much more credit than it has gotten up to now.

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Being one of the people who were an extra in this movie, I still wonder why this movie did get so little attention, I think the distribution company had a too busy release list to really pay attention to this rather good movie.

Off course he was very concentrated on set, so I did not get to speak to him, but everybody knows Sean Bean as a fine actor, and also Aaron and the rest of the cast and crew did their best.

So that's why I think it's a shame, after so much hard work, that the movie received so little marketing effort. See the movie, it's really nice.

I am grateful for the experience of being a part of this movie, and will do everything I can to make my own movie, which I am currently producing, a great success.

I watched this on a rainy afternoon in full expectation that it would be another predictable, mediocre kiddies' flick along the lines that those Olsen twins' churn out. Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised by both the interesting plot and the acting of the young child actor.

The story revolves around nine-year-old Thomas who has dreams about his 'imaginary friend' Tom, unaware that these dreams are in fact the manifestation of a psychic bond between him and his long-lost twin brother Tom. Thomas was the lucky twin who was adopted into a loving family whereas Tom grew up in an abusive orphanage. Then the two accidentally meet and it's up to them to break a child trafficking racket that is being conducted in Tom's orphanage.

Sean Bean is excellent as Thomas' father Paul, offering a paternal softness that is rarely required in the characters he usually plays. Aaron Johnson, the young actor who plays both roles of Tom and Thomas, is very talented for a child who very new to acting. He managed to convey the emotions of the story perfectly as well as juggle two accents (something many experienced adult actors can't manage, let alone a nine-year-old child) and two very different characters. It's a shame he's not been in more films since as he's probably qualifies as one of Britain's best young talent. And of course, I can't forget to mention Derek de Lint, who was wonderfully slimy as Mr Bancroft, and Bill Stewart, who was brilliant in capturing the crazed cruelty of Finch.

It might sound contrived but the fact it refuses to delve into the sugary sweetness of your typical American film (there's even a scene where Tom is beaten) and it isn't as predictable as it sounds, with reflection that Tom has problems down to his abusive past, and that is what sets this film aside from other family films doing the 'seperated twin' storyline.

It's just a shame that it wasn't advertised more since it's a film that Britain should have been proud to produce and it's certainly better than many Hollywood family films I've seen over the years.

I'm a huge fan of Sean Bean - from his snarly villains to his hero/anti-hero roles - and I'm working through all of his films one by one. It's a pleasure to see him play an ordinary man coping with loss and a rambunctious son who has an "imaginary" friend. Sean is tender and bemused and distracted and hits every note of perplexing parenthood just right. I do wish he'd play more of these sympathetic roles - in fact, I think he could do comedy quite beautifully, but that might be the die-hard fan in me talking. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is wonderful in his first film role and cleverly switches accents and characters with great ease. Inday Ba was a find for me too - believable and stunning - what a shame she passed away in 2005. The villains have just the right amount of sleaze and downright evil to make you want to boo out loud. The film made me smile and was such an unexpected pleasure that I really would like to give it a 7.5. Too bad it wasn't more widely released.

I sat down to watch Tom & Thomas expecting nothing more than an average kid's movie, the kind of thing that fills the Saturday morning TV schedules here, but how wrong I was, this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie, a good story that kept your interest right through helped along by an excellent cast, Sean Bean was great as the worried parent, Aaron Johnson was terrific as twins Tom & Thomas he managed to give the two boy's their own character with a strong believable performance which endeared the Twins to us, mix in some good old fashioned baddies and that victorian themed institute which is straight from Charles Dickens and you can't go wrong. This is another of those hidden gem's of a movie that didn't get the release attention it deserved by the distributor and yet provides a far better viewing experience than many so called blockbuster offerings, of course being intended for a younger audience the ending was a dead cert, but I only like movies with happy endings and this scores big time in that respect, maybe the U.K will be treated to a DVD release sometime? 9/10 for this one.