cry a lot watching this movie

Cumberbatch and Macdonald are terrific, but you knew that. There's a base story line here that sets up together with the wax and wane of the couple's relationship for a fine film. But for some very odd reason there's a subplot that is nothing but distracting and detracts quite a bit from the whole. The bit on the friend who somehow is a ranking politician and publisher, but seemed like a flaky nitwit. He's apparently supposed to be living out some lost childhood as an adult, which is inverse in a way of the main story line. Or something. But I thought Campbell Moore was laughably bad. I'm fine with the ending. I just wanted more of the lead characters together, and more of the source material's time travel/mystic elements. What coulda been, kids. low 3 stars

Liked it but still don't understand it

Rich, heartfelt exploration of childhood, from multiple perspectives, save that of children themselves. Simply told, subtle and gentle, with superb performances all round.

The speed of the film is probably a bit too slow for the average audience. This film is not focused on entertaining, but instead on telling a devastating story and it does this with such delicate realness, that the viewer finds himself involved with the plot. Furthermore it has one amazingly impactful moment, that is in its own way subtle but can shine in this film because of the whole setting and tone of the rest of the material. I'm sad that audience has given it such a bad score, it really deserves better.

A couple of parents replace their missing 4-year-old daughter by conceiving a brother. Eros wins the battles, Thanatos triumphs over the wars. (Mauro Lanari)

An incredibly hard film to watch. If you decide to take up the challenge, have a box of tissues to hand. The film deals with the loss of a child (by way of kidnapping according to the book, but it is not really addressed in the film) and how the parents cope with the loss. Both Benedict Cumberbatch & Kelly Macdonald do a fantastic job. The story is heart wrenching and had me feeling it as tho the loss was my own. Begging to find out what happened and where she was. Unfortunately real life is not so kind. A film I won't forget.

The parts about the lost child and how her parents dealt with it was truly dramatic but the rest was confusing and a bit disconnected from the actual plot, I believe it would've been more effective if it was more about the situation at hand.

Just a pointless film depicting a parents worst nightmare with nothing to offer the viewer but misery

An interesting, wrenching, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful storiy of childhoods as they exist in time, as we lose them. grieve for them, but they are ultimately born anew. Excellently acted.

Excellent acting and script.

All in all, confusing New Age drama.

Boring, affected, and not a little pretentious. It never really deals with the conflict at the centre of the story (the missing daughter) and instead dwells around the edges to show its effect on his life. But since we're not shown much of who he was before this it's not clear what changed. And as nothing dramatic happens, it's not clear what the point is. The film's also stuffed with underdeveloped and pointless subplots. The unfinished book, for example, or the report being worked up for the Prime Minister. None of them are resolved and they never go anywhere or reveal anything. But by far the most pointless plot is the friend who's suddenly decided he'd be happier as a child and so buys a house in the country where he can build a tree fort and do nothing but play all day long. This is treated as a somewhat surreal peccadillo rather than a serious mental breakdown. And, again, I have no idea what this has to do with the main plot. A pointless, useless film.

A sad subject - child lost. Life goes on but another torturing life goes on in parallel.

I really liked the movie. I thought the ending was lovely and I am glad the movie didn't get to dark.

Thought provoking, emotionally charged, superbly acted, a classic in my opinion!