O Último Ônibus

42 votes rated this 7.5 when I watched, but it's worth at least 8 or 8.5. The very few tropes and minor cliches are forgivable - the overwhelming focus is Thomas and his beautiful, sad, heartfelt, enduring, hilarious, eventful, human journey. You feel like you already know him - a man that all young men should aspire to become. Kind, moral and able to access and act upon core emotions.

Talking of Thomas, the actor Timothy Spall is cast perfectly. The characters you meet along the way also perform extremely well to the point you feel you're there with them, dancing, laughing, worrying and so on. Subtle directing excels. Eye glances and tone of reply say more than anything. A film for the emotionally capable. Try not to learn too much before viewing, it's a joy finding out as you go.

It seemed most of the 50 or so others and I teared up by films end. If you enjoy stories that portray humanity, emotions and life and want to be part of such a journey, I'd certainly not miss The Last Bus.

A lovely premise, visually very easy on the eye with good use of colours, and an excellent performance by Spall, but ultimately an entirely unrealistic film which can turn the plot laughable at times. With sentimentality taking precident over realism, every element of social media - a seemingly needlessly integral component of the film - shoehorned into the film is far funnier than what was presumably intended.

The emotional manipulation of the audience lands well, spurred on by a heartwarming selection of characters helping the 'hero' along. Whilst some performances are reasonable, all of the acting ability was taken by Spall, with some really poor acting by other surrounding characters, written for bit parts that don't really reflect a recognisable person. It's a pleasant, predictable, easy watch, but difficult to get engrossed in with frequent moments poorly feigning realism.

Any movie that brings tears to my eys is worth watching. It's a simple and harmless film with a wonderful soul at its heart. The story is told through and by virtue of a bus journey which is the vehicle for a source of sadness not revealed unit the final few scenes. The script is sparing and essential and there's no subplot unless you include the many encounters on the journey. Many of these encounters, even the briefest are full of poignancy and charm. A wonderful Feel-Good movie in its own very sweet way.

This is rare movie, as it brought tears to my eyes. It reminds us that there are still kind, generous, wonderful people in the world.

Timothy Spall stars - brilliantly obvs - as a recently widowed elderly man using his OAP bus pass to travel from his home in John o Groats to his former home in Lands End. It was an understated beautiful film and I cried about 8 times, the last of which were floods of tears. Nice tears mind. Surprise of the year so far.