Starring Michael Caine and Bill Milner. Rated PG. Opens Friday, May 15, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

In the questionable tradition of grouchy old-timers bonding with troubled kids comes this well-played if ultimately calorie-deficient trifle of a movie.

Is Anybody There? refers to the spark inside each person and where that might go upon death. This is the rather unfortunate obsession of 11-year-old Edward (Son of Rambow's big-eared Bill Milner), making his glum best of growing up in an East Sussex old-folks home run by his kind mum (Anne-Marie Duff) and grumbling, mullet-haired dad (David Morrissey, who played the scandalized politician in the U.K. State of Play).

Edward's dark fixations find a reluctant audience when the Amazing Clarence shows up. This retired magician is played, happily for everyone, by Michael Caine—clearly the best possible answer to the title question when asked by potential backers of this low-budget effort. Director John Crowley, who previously helmed the much tougher Boy A, depends entirely on Caine to provide edge and colour to Peter Harness's thin, repetitive script, and the ex-Alfie doesn't disappoint.

The tale is set in 1987, but aside from allowing us to laugh at daft pastel clothing and enjoy the absence of Game Boys and such in young hands, there's no particular reason for this. People are less than lovable here, which is fine, but the film's treacly score and homily-laden dialogue keep insisting that we root for dull, Big Movie things to happen.

Worse, little opportunity is taken to individuate the oldsters on hand, despite the fact that they constitute a who's who of great English character actors, including Sylvia Syms, Rosemary Harris, Leslie Phillips, Peter Vaughan, and Elizabeth Spriggs. Unfortunately, Spriggs died after production wrapped. But one is glad to see the rest of them still “there”.