Black Balloon Details

Enjoyably unexpected

This only had 23 votes at my time of renting and (obviously) no review, so I thought I'd give it a chance, and am glad that I did.

The story opens and builds the main characters at a good pace, getting a good feel of the emotions that the family have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

There are a few points where this Australian movie throws up small, sublty unexpected events, and times where it doesn't follow what you'd predict from bigger, American productions. This keeps it feeling fresh and different without being pretentious, a good quality to have in a movie, in my opinion.

I can't say I was hugely blown away by the movie but I'm certainly glad I watched, as it stirs the emotions nicely and doesn't feel like it repeats what others have done before.

All in all it's just a good film, well acted, shot and edited.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Fab Film

Australian cinema has a history of producing these human interest tales and this sits comfortably with the best of them. The, shall we say, straight forwardness of the Australian national stereotype can be a little tedious, even boorish but it seems to be underpinned by genuine common decency. It's a tale of good people doing the best they can in trying circumstances. The script is great, actors first class and It's also very entertaining which is quite a high wire act given the material.

It would have got five stars but for an ending that was so stupid, so unnecessary that it actually made feel angry. It was as if the makers panicked and resorted to a HAPPY ending. It could have ruined the whole experience but as the ending isn't integeral it didn't. It was like finding a hair in your dinner but then realising it was one of your own