Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Alicia I love this movie so much

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

jenniferjones722 I caught this on City TV last night (Feb 16th, 2008) when flipping through the channels, and even though I had missed the first 30 minutes of this film, I was compelled to stop on that channel and watch it! I found the plot to be riveting, I couldn't turn away! ***Please be warned my review contains spoilers - If you haven't seen the film yet, please stop reading now*** I was drawn in by several factors - the disintegration of Julie & Henry's relationship; the illness and impending death of their son; the mystical, magical "healer" character; the ensuing relationship between Julie & Alexei. I was so fascinated by all of these concepts unraveling at once! I kind of disliked how Alexei abruptly left, when he found he couldn't heal the boy. It begged so many questions, such as "Is it just THAT boy he cannot heal? Or has he totally lost his powers?", and "What made him lose his powers? Giving in to his desire for sex & love? Or did he lose his powers when he impregnated Julie? Did his healing 'force' leave his body through ejaculation?" Also, when the film cuts to the final scene, where Julie's pregnancy is obviously going along nicely, and even though their son's death is imminent, they appear to be a reunited, happy family again. Nothing was shown to describe how the family got back to this state again.. it begged more questions, such as "When & How did Julie & Henry get so friendly with each other again?" and "How did they let go of all of the bad feelings and bad blood between them, and become so loving again?" and "Is the baby going to have Alexei's healing powers?" But, even though I seem to prefer a film that "spells it all out" for me, I loved this film BECAUSE it begged all of those questions, BECAUSE it left me pondering, wondering, thinking, worrying... It truly IS a thought-provoking film and I love when I can watch a film and still be affected by it, and still be thinking about it, days later. This film is definitely one of those films!

Karima For me the ending was the point of the entire movie! That in fact, we are misled through the whole movie by the fact the her son is sick, and there's The Healer, so we all think that the healer is healing her son. And that's where we are wrong. He is a healer, and the person he was meant to heal was HER. Not the boy. Her son get's sick, yes, but why do we, the living, automatically think that the best thing is for him to survive? If you look at the mother in the beginning when she just finds out her son is ill and dying, you can see that she is in no condition to let go, especially because she has no source of comfort with her husband just having cheated on her. We even see her begging her son to not die. So she's willing to fight tooth and nail for her son to live, but also in a way for her soul and spirit to survive. That is where the healer comes in, and also maybe why he is able to spot her in that huge crowd as someone needing him. Not because of her son, but perhaps even unknownst to him, because healing her is going to require more from him than he's ever given before.Look also at the way she goes about her relationship with the healer. It's not your average affair. She's forgiven her husband, and is not doing it to spite him, and tells him about Alexai, she even admits to not understanding it. And on Alexai's side, if you look at the fact that whenever he heals someone it takes something out of him, this was his biggest healing mission ever. Because to do it, he had to give up his life as he knew it, without knowing the reason why, but just by following his instinct and what he feels he was called to do. He has sex for the first time, impregnates her, and then it completely makes sense that when her son's illness comes back, Alexai's healing powers are gone. Because that was never what he was meant to do. He healed that family, and specifically the mother, by healing her spirit enough for her to let go of her son. And in the end, she is able. She let's him go, and doesn't beg him to stay for her sake like she did before. It's brilliantly written, because it challenges what we think we know about dying, and living. And most of all it illustrates the immense power of spiritual healing.

Eugenia Loli This is a drama about beliefs and how these can change based on necessity and fear.At the beginning of the movie the Jew husband (the always excellent William Fichtner) doesn't believe in miracles, but after his son gets better from a "miracle man", he changes his mind and begs that same miracle man --who has also slept with his wife in the meantime-- to come and help his son. The necessity of his son win the battle with cancer is more important than his own prejudices and fears.The movie starts a bit slowly, then it gets a bit of a more interesting pace, but overall it's not a movie that will have you see it again any time soon. Performances are good, photography is not too bad, but the pace is slow.

jotix100 The Polish director Agnieszka Holland offers a view about a family in turmoil caused by the illness of a young boy. This film was shown on the Sundance channel recently. Most of the comments submitted about this movie in this forum fail to give credit to Ms. Holland for this tale that blends mysticism, faith, science and betrayal that works well. Stop reading if you haven't seen the picture.Ms. Holland's film is complicated, in that it asks the viewer to think about how Julie's actions to save Nick, her young son, stricken with a rare cancer, clash with the medical science because she goes with her instincts instead, when she takes the boy to be seen by a folk "healer" in Poland. At the same time her marriage has come to an abrupt end when she learns her husband has betrayed her with another woman, in her own home.Julie sees an improvement when "the healer" selects Nick as his next project to help and asks her to follow him as he goes through the countryside seeing people. When Nicks starts showing signs of recovery, a mutual attraction develops between Julie and Alexei, the holy man. Julie goes home and Alexei follows her. Something is not quite right with Nick and when he has a relapse, Julie's faith in Alexei's ability to cure her son evaporates, thus ending their relationship, as Alexei abandons Julie.The film is well done and paced. It engrosses the viewer because Ms. Holland knows where she is taking us. At the end, when Alexei has left, we finally see some sense of harmony in Julie's life, depicted lovingly in the last sequence of the film. Nick, is still not well, but the family has come together by the experience they have been through and we see that Julie is expecting a child. It almost appears as though Nick will die, but there will be a new life in the family. In other words, the sacrifice of Nick's life for the miracle that is growing in Julie's womb.The movie owes a tremendous deal to the luminous presence of Miranda Otto, who does wonders with her depiction of Julie. Ms. Otto's face projects an intelligence that is uncanny. She makes us believe that she is this woman torn between the medicine that might help her young son, but does nothing, and to what extreme, as a mother, she will go to have Nick cured of the cancer that is killing him slowly.Lothaire Bluteau is the healer, Alexei. He gives an enigmatic performance that adds another layer to the film. In their scenes together, Mr. Bluteau and Ms. Otto do amazing acting. This Canadian actor's work is never dull; he projects a rare knack to make his characters believable and likable.Finally, William Fichtner, as Henry, is also excellent. He responds well to Ms. Holland's direction. The twins, played by Ryan Smith and Bianca Crudo are excellent without being bratty, or obnoxious.Ms. Holland's film will reward those who watch it with an open mind as she never passes judgment on what we are seeing on the screen.