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Sir Maurice Micklewhite, Michael Caine to the cinema going public, is still a treasured actor and his latest star vehicle is a touching and well played entry in his long career.

Set in the Northern Town, close to several beaches, Is Anybody There is a whimsical, but dark, drama centred around the friendship between a young boy Edward (played by 14 year old Bill Milner from Son of Rambow) who is growing up in an old people's home and a new resident Clarence (Caine).

Edward, whose situation recalls the early years of Benjamin Button without any young company, is fascinated with death and gets himself in all sorts of bother when the tries to record the last breaths of residents who pass away. Clarence has just lost his wife and struggles to come to terms with his new surroundings and sadly with the cruel grip of dementia. Caine's character was an exuberant magician in his career and gradually his cantankerous and bitter facade gives way to a kind of friendship with the young Edward. Similarly to Peter O'Toole's recent roles in Venus and Dean Spanley, as well as being sad, this is an amusing old codger part for Sir Michael.

Relieving what would be very tough, grim proceedings is a side-plot with Edward's father (David Morrissey) suffering a 'mid-life' crisis in his marriage to his mother (Anne Marie Duff) and chasing a young teenager, who also works in the home, in a succession of horrific 1980's outfits to go with his weasly moustache.

The film adopts the various clich� you'd expect from a story where redemption is hard to find. There is also a difficult balancing act at its heart. The terrible gradual loss of personality that comes with dementia, which has been described as "turning out the lights from all the rooms in someone's head, one by one," and humour of decent working class folk. The residents are played by esteemed elder statesmen from earlier decades, Leslie Phillips (with great humour), Sylvia Simms and Elizabeth Spriggs (who sadly passed away after filming was completed).

All in, Is Anybody There? is not entirely successful but Caine's performance is very moving. The actor himself has said the script moved him to tears, whether you have seen dementia first-hand or not, the finished film might well do the same.