The story line sounds plain and simple, but the movie is enlightened by Bernie's impassioned narration and by a gallery of small comic details.
Comment
08/29/08
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Sixty Six (2008)
63 %
Reviews Counted: 38 Fresh: 24 Rotten:14 Average Rating: 5.8/10
Consensus:
Likable but overly sentimental, Sixty Six has snatches of sharp dialogue but is ultimately too predicable.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 1, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Bernie Rubens (Gregg Sulkin) is a nerdy 12-year-old preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, which he wants to be a huge, ornate affair. However, his parents, Manny (Eddie Marsan) and Esther (Helena Bonham Carter), have accidentally scheduled it for the day of the 1966 World Cup final, so if England... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Helena Bonham-Carter, Stephen Rea, Eddie Marsan, Greg Sulkin
Director: Paul Weiland
Screenwriter: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Staughan
Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Elizabeth Karlsen, Richard Curtis
Screenwriter: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Staughan
Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Elizabeth Karlsen, Richard Curtis
Reviews
Top Critic
This movie has a Woody Allen feel to it, but without the Allen shenanigans.
08/29/08
[Director] Weiland pours so much heart into his autobiographically 'true-ish' story that accessibility is a nonissue.
08/22/08
Top Critic
...the sort of Jewish film that the whole family can enjoy without feeling they're fulfilling an obligation to see it.
08/22/08
...a charming coming-of-age period piece about the trials and tribulations one young boy must face in his quest to become a man.
08/19/08
Weiland's occasional heavy-handedness is more than redeemed by the lightness of his cast.
08/15/08
It does cast Helena Bonham Carter against type as a devoted mother and housewife, and, for soccer nuts, integrate pristine footage from the '66 Cup.
08/15/08
You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate its uncondescending fondness for the claustrophobic warmth of family life among working-class people apprehensively inching their way toward upward mobility.
08/07/08
Sixty Six may find a niche audience, but instead of depicting a boy's first steps toward manhood -- ceremony aside -- it turns into an uninvolving portrait of self-absorption.
08/06/08
Top Critic
I think it’s a very heartfelt story, but we get the same thing over and over again.
08/04/08
Top Critic
Sixty Six's loving portrayal of the ups & downs of a Jewish family in London charmingly entices the viewer to find themselves within its four-eyed, adorably geeky hero.
08/02/08
Director Paul Weiland ("Made of Honor") co-wrote the tone-deaf screenplay for this cinematic abortion that features the ever-lousy Stephen Rea adding his specific brand of stench to a pasted-together movie that is predictable and boring as it is depressin
08/02/08
The direction of this autobiographical tale by Paul Weiland (whose lengthy rap sheet runs all the way from Leonard Part 6 to Made of Honor) is less than subtle.
08/01/08
Top Critic
Though inspired by Weiland's own childhood, the film's plot sticks close to the underdog's coming-of-age formula and is marred by young Bernie's gratingly self-pitying voice-over.
08/01/08
It’s designed to be crowd-pleasing and tug on hearts across the board, but there’s a manipulative quality that will put a ceiling on business.
08/01/08
Top Critic
...so unrelenting on the misery it piles upon poor Bernie Reubens you may just feel guilty laughing...
07/31/08
A sprightly English comedy about a very special Bar Mitzvah, World Cup Fever, and the frantic efforts of a 12-year old boy to get the attention he feels he deserves.
07/31/08
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• Sixty Six at Rotten Tomatoes
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