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The Black Balloon Reviews
This is standard Hallmark fare but to its credit it never tries to hide from that.
| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 7, 2019
Autism is a subject most filmmakers fear to broach, but not Aussie newcomer Elissa Down, she attacks the issue with honesty and passion.
| Original Score: B+ | May 25, 2013
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011
It's a well-meaning film, marked by Luke Ford's sensitive portrayal of a disabled character. But the main character is bland, imparting the same vibe on the rest of the film.
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 14, 2009
The Black Balloon is neither 'Rain Man' nor 'The Other Sister. This Aussie charmer charts its own course.
| Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2009
Thomas and Jackie's friendship, blossoming into a chaste romance, is the dramatic engine that powers The Black Balloon, but it's far from the most important relationship in the film.
| May 1, 2009
Wakefield anchors the well-paced quieter moments.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009
The film's vision is neither a grim wallow nor falsely cheerful. It's compassionate but unblinking, and in the end we can't help but admire the genuine strength of how its characters accept their special challenge.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 17, 2009
The Black Balloon is marked by the fiercest bravery you're likely to encounter on screen this year.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 16, 2009
At its sharpest Elissa Down's feature directorial debut is guided by intense, rough-edged emotional swings that feel authentically alive, even when the script settles for tidiness.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2009
The Black Balloon establishes this family with a delicate mixture of tenderness and pain.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2009
A film that mostly skirts artifice and sentimentality for a truer portrait of a family battered and bruised but nowhere near broken.
| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 9, 2009
The outlines are broad and obvious, and Thomas such a bore, that The Black Balloon loses air.
| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 8, 2009
There are wrenching scenes that are brutally stark, yet there remains a steady sense of calm that is touching and sensitive without ever turning sentimental.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 2, 2009
Structurally and cinematically, The Black Balloon sticks to the coming-of-age basics, but [director] Down has a gift for conveying time and place.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 2, 2009
It sometimes skirts melodrama territory, but the deep emotions ultimately are real and gratifying. Dependable Toni Collette keeps it grounded, disappearing into her role as the incredibly patient mother.
| Mar 6, 2009
Collette aside, there is no wow factor in The Black Balloon -- just a not-bad story told with better-than-average skill.
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 6, 2009
It's a film about a supposedly real-world set-up that never feels true, even though the people who made it clearly set out to treat their subject matter and the audience with respect.
| Mar 6, 2009
It's brilliant; a beautifully balanced comedy-drama that makes you laugh as much as it makes you cry, sometimes in the same scene.
| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 12, 2009