User reviews

In the opening scenes of the brooding titled ¨Aloft¨ or ¨No Llores Vuela¨ , a young boy carrying a falcon rushes along with his mom (Jennifer Connelly) across a bleak , frozen stretch of road in the Arctic , on their way to see a mysterious faith healer . She is Nana , a single , working-class mother desperately seeking a solution for her youngest child Gully (Winta McGrath) , who suffers from a brain tumor , while also dealing with her precocious , restless older son Ivan (Zen McGrath). Nana lives in northern Manitoba , working part-time on a farm , where she is having an affair with her married boss and attempting to raise her two young sons . In a last-ditch effort to save him from his terminal illness she drags her kids to that aforementioned faith healer (William Shimell) . Later on , us we follow a mother and her grown-up son (Cillian Murphy) . Nana has a great strength , almost stoicism, and she will become a renowned artist as well as healer , and he will grow into his own as an expert falconer married to an attractive woman (Oona Chaplin) . In the present , that puts the very meaning of life and art into question , so that we may contemplate the possibility of living life to its fullest , despite the uncertainties littering our paths . Tracking a journey by a documentarian , Jannia (Mélanie Laurent ), and her subject (Cillian Murphy) toward the North Pole . As journalist Jannia and accomplished falconer Ivan brave punishing winds and frozen but crackling lakes to visit his strange mother . There takes place an encounter between the two that will bring the very meaning of their lives into question .

This Faith-Healing drama is moody , downbeat , slowly paced , somber , dark and attempts to comment on humanity , or the lack of such in the world . ¨Aloft¨ is as remote as its Arctic setting , as the story is certainly rare but with great actors though protagonists leave us cold . Like cheeks on a freezing day , any curiosity or interest the sparse script engenders is puckered dry by the end , leaving behind only an irritating numbness ; and including some ethereal , semi-supernatural roots . The picture relies heavily on the thunderous relationship between a troubled woman who gets reacquainted with her adult son ; both of whom marked from a past event marred by an accident that tears them apart . The family's tough-to-follow saga is one of abandonment and reunion , with filmmaker as well as writer Claudia Llosa showing both to be equally taxing in their own ways . The film holds itself at an icy remove from its audience , rendering its characters as impenetrable as if they were encased in ice . Nice performances from Jennifer Connelly as a struggling mummy encounters the son she abandoned 20 years earlier , delving her evolution to becoming a renowned healer , Cilliam Murphy as a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence and Mélanie Laurent as the young journalist will bring about an encounter between the two main starring . The freewheeling camera often stays close on the important cast , which also includes Oona Chaplin , William Shimell and Ian Tracey . Furthermore , a colorful , cold and evocative cinematography by Nicolas Bolduc . Sensitive and and relaxing musical score by Michael Brook .

This thoughtful , meditative , thought-provoking , but deceptive flick was regularly directed by Peruvian director Claudia Llosa who previously directed the magical realism-infused 2009 drama titled "The Milk of Sorrow" , it told the story of a rare disease transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy . This was her first English-language film titled "Aloft" , like her prior two features — debut "Madeinusa" and Golden Bear-winning follow-up "The Milk Of Sorrow" , "Aloft" boasts Llosa's magnificently lyrical eye for photography and her unassailable slickness to originate a haunted , slightly otherworldly atmosphere even out of banal happenings .

I caught this movie halfway through. I was taken in and very intrigued but missing a lot, obviously. So I rewatched from the beginning and so glad I did. Some things might have been more confusing but I had seen further down so now I was understanding. It's definitely not a film for everyone. And I'm additionally annoyed that the US version is cut. However, all in all, I really did enjoy this film. I loved the actors and I thought they played their parts well. It does leave a lot open ended or up to interpretation and that can be frustrating. But I just can't stop thinking about it. I love those films that just stay with you and make you want to continue u deters ding and wrapping your mind around it.

An hour and a half into the movie and I am still not entirely sure what is happening. Seriously what the heck am I watching? Terrible movie. Jumps back and forth between the past and future at unrelated points in the story. Dialog is boring. Hard to follow what is going on. Character development is non-existent. The mother discovers she is a mystic healer. The son keeps and trains and keeps predator birds (falcons specifically). The execution of the premise is even more weird and poorly executed than it sounds. This is a really poorly developed story that never should have been made into a movie. Through its entirety the viewer is subjected to bad writing (no range in vocabulary) with a plot that never really happens. The attempt is to masquerade as some deep art piece. It fails. Film was just a crap indie film or a B-Role movie intended to go straight to RedBox. And even it that low bar to shoot for, if the directors hadn't scored Jennifer Connelly in the lead role it wouldn't have even attracted viewership in that subprime outlet. This movie totally relies on viewer recognizing the star on the DVD cover to entice giving the movie a chance. Its not worth the buck you feed into a Redbox machine to rent it. AVOID and spend the hour and a half of your like doing something more worthwhile like try watching paint dry.

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 film tells the story of a journalist, who sets up a meeting between a young man and his mother who tragically abandoned him twenty years ago in a cold, icy land.

I don't quit know what "Aloft" is about, because of a poor story and a poorly presented story. The non-linear storyline does not help to clear things up, and in fact it confuses and meddles up everything. Central plot ideas are poorly conveyed, for example the first scene seems completely unrelated and even irrelevant to the rest of the film. Motives and actions of characters are poorly explained that most of the time I don't know what they are doing. As a result I don't even know what exactly drove the mother to abandon her son. I understand there was a tragedy, but what exactly happened that linked the tragedy to the abandonment, which was poorly presented that it happened already before I realised that the scene was about abandonment.

I watched it for Jennifer Connelly, but unfortunately "Aloft" is not a high point for Jennifer Connelly's portfolio of work.

Okay, what's going on here? Is this supposed to be deep, metaphoric or just plain weird. Whatever the intention of the makers, it doesn't work at all. All emotional scenes designed to impact the viewer fall flat because you don't even know what they're going on about. Yeah, the acting is good. So what? The movie doesn't mean anything. It doesn't go anywhere. And it certainly doesn't go out of it's way to clue the viewer in what we are supposed to understand. I don't even know why I gave this 2 stars. Probably for the bird and a few stunning landscape shots. And Jennifer C. Used to be a stunner, but it's tough to recall any film she's been in that was worth cold dog doo doo. I dunno manybe I'm just dense or something but this convolutes disaster only made me irate.

An unusual film about a healer and what it cost her to be one, set in Canada's far north. The three adult principals are flawless. The two child actors are flawless too. If nothing else it's worth seeing these performances which should impress even the most hard-hearted of critics.

The story itself is rather slight. A woman is recognized as having the gift by another healer but her own family problems might not withstand her acceptance of her gift. Aside from that it's about relationships between a mother and her two sons, and perhaps also about a loving mother trying to live mostly through her emotions.

The real value of the film is how it seems to represent a breakthrough for all of the actors involved. Cillian Murphy, Jennifer Connelly, and Melanie Laurent are all unforgettably good. The two McGrath brothers are irreplaceable.

It wasn't until I read the synopsis on IMDB did I work out what the story was about. I found the film impossible to concentrate on because it was so dull, there was no story and nothing of an value to watch. Why make this film? It seems a waste of time and effort. Watch something else, you will enjoy it much more.

A Spanish-Canadian-French drama; A story about a documentary filmmaker accompanying a falconer who is travelling across a frozen landscape to find his mother, a faith healer whom he hasn't seen for many years. This moody, sombre, slow-paced film has a theme about the world lacking humanity. However, it is long-winded, barely inaccessible, recklessly imposing symbols and metaphors in its style. It lacks impetus because of its ethereal meditation and ponderous tone, which come at the expense of character development. It is difficult for the viewer to make an emotional connection with any of the characters when the important parts of their motives only hatch at the end of the film.

How could such talented actors involve themselves in such complete trash?

What bothers me the most is the reverent tone of this preposterous film.

The film makers were obviously looking for a story involving replacement religion/spiritual experience outside of actual religions and something acceptable to hip international audiences. With the beautiful Jennifer Connelly thrown in as a replacement Jesus.

Looks like it didn't work since no one went to see the film. Don't blame them.

People giving this film a bad review are people who have either no patience or no experience with loss.

There is simply no bad acting. Cillian does what Cillian does best: dark and broody... Wonderful footage, shot with love for the harsh environment and people.

This film is for people who don't mind - or even like - to wait and not having the plot & the solution & the happy ending being presented in the first five minutes.

Take your time, it's worth it.

I am a serious and intelligent movie watcher of more than 55 years. I look for movies that attempt to say something when selecting an indie. After watching any movie, if it stays on my mind for days or weeks, I count it as a worthwhile film to have watched. Aloft has been on mind for weeks since viewing it.

I suspect that those of us with moderately wretched lives due to personal and family tragedy are prone to be more affected by the effort. You know, those of us who still do not have all of the answers to life even after 60+ years on this rock and years of formal philosophical and literary education.

I recommend that if anything in the trailer, reviews or other sources about the movie appeals to you at all, you should watch the movie with an open mind and make your own decision about its "worth".

Connolly and Laurent (sp?) were compelling.

I avoided watching this movie because of such negative reviews but after reading the synopsis, I decided to try it. All three lead actors were phenomenal - such emotional performances! Though the story is a not without flaws, the chosen actors - both adult and child - provide a flow that keeps the movie moving. I'm glad I read about the movie before watching. It bounces between time periods quickly and knowing the story ahead of time, made this easier to navigate. Cillian Murphy's depiction of an adult man dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic childhood is real and raw. Jennifer Connelly's role as a mother who lost one son and abandons another while finding 'fame' as a healer, is both complicated and vulnerable. Give it a chance - the movie has more to it than you might think.