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The Black Balloon
All fifteen-year-old Thomas Mollison wants is a normal adolescence. And when his pregnant mother has to put in him in charge of his autistic older brother Charlie, Thomas faces his biggest challenge yet.
14 September 1992, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
21 July 1989, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
April 23, 2009
Wakefield anchors the well-paced quieter moments.
April 16, 2009
The Black Balloon is marked by the fiercest bravery you're likely to encounter on screen this year.
April 09, 2009
A film that mostly skirts artifice and sentimentality for a truer portrait of a family battered and bruised but nowhere near broken.
August 14, 2009
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.
April 10, 2009
The Black Balloon establishes this family with a delicate mixture of tenderness and pain.
May 25, 2013
Autism is a subject most filmmakers fear to broach, but not Aussie newcomer Elissa Down, she attacks the issue with honesty and passion.
April 02, 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.
April 17, 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.
May 03, 2009
The Black Balloon is neither 'Rain Man' nor 'The Other Sister. This Aussie charmer charts its own course.
April 10, 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.
April 02, 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.
May 01, 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.
