Till Human Voices Wake Us

2001 Drama

Young adolescent Sam Franks (Lindley Joyner) spends his summers away from school with his physician father (Peter Curtin), whose schedule barely allows for quality father-son time. Therefore, Sam idles away most of his time with neighbor Maurie Lewis (Frank Gallacher) and Maurie's handicapped daughter Silvy (Brooke Harman), who also happens to be Sam's best friend. One night following a dance, Sam and Silvy kiss for the first time, and go down to the nearby river. As the two are lazily floating in the river and watching the night sky, Silvy disappears underwater and her body is never found. Several years afterwards, an adult Sam (Guy Pearce) -- who has gone on to become a psychiatry instructor -- journeys back to the same town for the funeral of his recently deceased father. While en route, Sam encounters Ruby (Helena Bonham Carter), a mysterious young woman he is forced to rescue from the same river that Silvy had disappeared in. After bringing Ruby to his father's house to calm her down after the incident, Sam begins to feel a strangely familiar comfortableness with her and the two begin to visit all of Sam's and Silvy's old stomping grounds. more..

Director: Michael Petroni

Starring: Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham Carter, Frank Gallacher, Lindley Joyner, Brooke Harman

Reviews

  • Like the best of poems, it doesn't lend itself to easy understanding. But, like the best of poems, it's extremely provocative, to both imagination and intellect.

    Stephen Hunter - The Washington Post

    20 January 2013

  • Stays emotionally mired because of a static screenplay that fails to express its issues dramatically.

    Mick LaSalle - The San Francisco Chronicle

    20 January 2013

  • Despite being well acted and sweetly moving when it strips down to the tender poem at its heart, Till Human Voices Wake Us spends too much time playing to an otherworldly suspense that simply isn't there.

    Janice Page - The Boston Globe

    20 January 2013

  • Petroni takes the poem at face value, turning diaphanous literary imagery opaque and literal.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    20 January 2013

  • So busy building its symbolic frame that it forgets to develop its characters, or even to make them likable.

    Stephen Holden - The New York Times

    20 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Screenplay - Original

    Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards (2002)

     
  • Golden Trailer Awards (2003)