Majorthebys Charming and brutal

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

jeffreyhillen-364-945381 My Boy Jack is a TV film about Jack Kipling centered in the first world war. Rudyard Kipling is an author and father of Jack. The world is in war in Germany. And Rudyard fears for an attack on Great Britain. His opinion is that every young healthy man in Britain should offer himself up for the army. He even commands his own son to do that first as a medical function in the army. But Jack has bad eyes and has glasses so they don't take him in at first. But after much effort Jacks decides he wants to fight in the army – after much work and effort he makes it and grows in the ranks. But will Jack be save home again ? His mother and sister are in worried and search him when he is missing.Brian Kirk is the Director of the TV film , nowadays known for series as Game of Thrones and Penny Dreadful. Brian Kirk did such an excellent job on camera movement and bringing all the emotions to the screen that were needed in the exact amount. Though the battleground could've improved more , you only saw what happened behind the walls where the soldiers were save. You heard the bombs everywhere, but you saw nothing really happening until at the end of the film.The performance of the cast was fantastic, especially Dan Radcliffe and David Haig gave such an outstanding performance. So real and so believable like you had the feeling those characters could have really lived during the war. Dan Radcliffe again shows why he is one of the greatest actors at the moment bringing his character to the small screen so likable and in such an emotional way.This film is so beautiful and that you desperately want to watch it again. You want a good ending , you want Jack to make it save home. Such an beautiful script. I give this film 8 out of 10, fantastic! Recommend to every fan of war and/or drama films.

MartinHafer "My Boy Jack" is set during WWI--a war in which many millions of young men were killed for absolutely nothing (between 5-6 million of these were Brits). However, instead of being the story about a battle or large groups of men, it's about one individual--Jack Kipling, the only son of Rudyard Kipling. What makes it so compelling is that Jack shouldn't have even been in action--he was practically blind and had been repeatedly rejected for service. But, since his father was a public figure and had pushed so much for the war as well as the whole 'duty to King and country' rot, it wasn't surprising that the boy felt compelled to push and push to get into the thick of the action. What happens next isn't at all surprising--and gives his family a chance to reassess their values and commitment to the cause as well as their own part in the tragedy.This is a very effective film. Much of it is because of the fine acting by Daniel Ratcliffe (as Jack), Carey Mulligan, Kim Cattrall (as his American mother) and David Haig as Rudyard Kipling. What makes it a little more interesting is that the true story was based on a play written by Haig himself. Overall, it's a wonderful but incredibly sad film that puts an individual face on tragedy. Well worth seeing and filled with emotion--so much so that you really should have some Kleenex handy. One of the better made for TV movies I have seen.

Gunn Although it starts out with author Rudyard Kipling as a gung-ho imperialist, there is redemption in its final scenes as he realizes the consequences of his pride. As said, it is an excellent film in all respects: acting, especially by David Haig as Rudyard Kipling, who also wrote the screenplay equally impressively. The music score by Adrian Johnston is both rich and somber and ultimately moving. The cinematography is stunningly beautiful and the art direction is brilliant and gritty. Daniel Radcliffe (John 'Jack' Kipling) is more than Harry Potter and shows his acting chops here, as do Kim Cattrall (Caroline Kipling), Carey Mulligan (Elsie 'Bird' Kipling) and Martin McCann (Bowe of the Irish Guard), who relates the details of what happened to Jack. This is an entertaining message movie.

HallmarkMovieBuff There are no ladies knitting back home in the capitals of Europe, but "My Boy Jack" does a topnotch job of portraying the horrors of World War I by focusing on one particular drawing room in England as Rudyard Kipling, his wife and daughter await word of the fate of son Jack, "missing, presumed wounded," in his first battle one day past his eighteenth birthday.Familiar with David Haig only as the bumbling Detective Inspector Grim in the British comedy series, "The Thin Blue Line," I had no idea he could act so dramatically, let alone write so moving a piece as this. Of all the "Masterpieces" on public TV, this is one of the most deserving to be seen.Young Daniel Radcliffe, in the middle of his run as the lead in the Harry Potter movie series, turns in a surprisingly effective performance in the title role here, a role quite different from that of the schoolboy wizard. And young Carey Mulligan, who's become nearly ubiquitous as somebody or other's daughter in U.K. dramas shown on American TV, is equally affecting as the Kipling daughter, Elsie.U.K.-born, Canadian-bred, and U.S.-trained (at least in part), Kim Cattrall plays Kipling's American wife, with the accent to match. This piece was shown as a "Masterpiece Classic" on America's PBS, followed by behind-the-scene interviews with the three principals, Haig, Radcliffe, and Cattrall. Cattrall's interview was perhaps the most articulate of the lot, which may have been a surprise to viewers familiar only with "Samantha", Cattrall's sexpot in The City (NYC) from the popular HBO series.All in all, VERY highly recommended.