Till Human Voices Wake Us

2002
R
1h 41m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

2.5K

YOUR RATING

Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce in Till Human Voices Wake Us (2002)

Play trailer2:36

2 Videos

7 Photos

Drama Romance

A man returns to Victoria, Australia, where he grew up, and encounters a mysterious woman who reminds him of someone he once knew.A man returns to Victoria, Australia, where he grew up, and encounters a mysterious woman who reminds him of someone he once knew.A man returns to Victoria, Australia, where he grew up, and encounters a mysterious woman who reminds him of someone he once knew.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

2.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 nominations total

Videos2

Trailer 2:36

Till Human Voices Wake Us

Trailer 2:28

Till Human Voices Wake Us

Trailer 2:28

Till Human Voices Wake Us

Photos6

+ 3

User reviews49

6.32.5K

Featured reviews

7MattyGibbs

A sad tale of lost love

I am a big fan of both Guy Pearce and Australian cinema so I was pleased to chance upon this film recently. Pearce plays a psychologist Dr Sam Franks who is haunted by a tragic past. A chance meeting with a stranger changes his life.

This a slow moving but engrossing story which flits back and forth from Sams childhood to the current day as we get to know what shaped him into a lonely and tortured soul. The film works equally well in both time periods as the pieces are put in place as it builds to an emotional ending.

The acting is excellent from all parties. I'm not Helena Bonham Carters biggest fan but she does a good job in this. Also impressive are the younger actors especially Lindley Joiner as the young Sam.

Till Human Voices Wake Us is a tragic tale of lost love and how this can deeply affect all of us. It won't appeal to everyone but for people who like well written drama this is well worth watching.

9derekbradford

Amazing cinematography and lighting

As one who would like to make films some day, this film blew my mind as an example of superb cinematography and lighting, as well as balanced and subtle acting. Guy Pearce was a little rigid, but i haven't seen him in anything else, so that may have been an affectation of the morose and sombre character he was playing. Bonham Carter would be a dream to work with. She's a master of the art and has a sly dark, sexuality that i can't resist. I haven't yet, but i'll be searching out the cinematography and lighting credits and looking for more of the work of those fine technicians. Good work on a difficult and slow paced psychological drama.

anita_baxter

Imaginative remake of Wild Strawberries

The supernatural seems to be real in this poetic film about a repressed Australian psychiatrist who revisits his boyhood home. Thereafter, the film becomes a long dream sequence as he deals with a terrible trauma from his youth. The beauty of the Australian countryside makes the dream world seem possible.

Ingmar Bergman's film Wild Strawberries has a very similar construction, without the ambiguity. Perhaps a direct influence?

The pace and music are deliberately slow to evoke a sleep-like world, so don't lose patience. Just enjoy the idyllic scenery and the wonderful acting, especially by the teenage actors.

snafu-4

A film like no other

i had no expectations before watching this movie. I've heard very little about it but what i have heard was it was just plain bad. I honestly just watched it because Guy Pearce was in it, but if there is one thing we've learnt from watching Pearce's films is that he takes the complex unoridinary films and this is no exception. Firstly lets start with the plot. From reading other reviews you already know Pearce is a doctor and his leading lady has amnesia, but the film is so much more then that. Pearce's character goes back to where he grew up to barry his father and goes on a journey to recover the past that he never dealt with. It's truley an amazing story about the tragedy one boy experiances in his youth and how it has affected his life thus. Don't take my word for it and don't listen to all of those who have said the movie was bad or made no sense, watch it for yourself and you will see this is another one of Pearce's masterpeices.

8suzannadavi

This is a mental/emotional movie - not meant for action-lovers

I was reading some of the previous reviews and realized that not everyone would get or like this movie - it is not one I would recommend to many friends, but I loved it. Painful, real, acknowledging of life's moments to regret- it made me think of the line from the Big Kahuna when Danny Divito says you have lots to regret, you just don't know it yet (paraphrase) - another great non-action movie. I saw nothing of the paranormal in this movie - I think that is an interpretation by those who do not get it. Beautifully done and tenderly told, I heartily recommend this movie to a small handful of special people which included my 15 year old daughter.

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The title is taken from the last line of the 1917 poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T.S. Eliot. It reads: "Till human voices wake us and we drown".

Goofs
As Sam slowly reaches over and closes his dead father's eyes, we can see his father's shirt rising and falling with his breathing

Quotes
Silvy Lewis: If moths are attracted to the light, why don't they come out in the day?
Young Sam Franks: ...guess in the day, light comes to them.

Alternate versions
-Minor Spoilers* The film was dramatically reworked for the international version (ie. American release) due to pressure by its distributor who felt the stars needed to appear before their original appearance nearly 35 minutes into the film. Under supervision by the director Michael Petroni, the entire film structure has been altered using some unused footage (that doesn't otherwise appear in the original Australian cut) and trimming nearly 5 minutes of footage in order to introduce the adult Sam character (Guy Pearce) at the beginning of the film rather than a half and hour into it. Flashbacks are then implored from the original 35 minutes of the Australian cut for the Young Sam and Silvy scenes. Additionally, Dale Cornelius' original music score has almost entirely been replaced by an orchestral score written by Amotz Plessner. The results ultimately lead to two very different approached to the material with different tones. The original, director intended, version plays more like a romantic drama with a past/present connection whilst the international cut has been reworked to play more as a mystery with possible supernatural undertones.
End Spoilers *