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

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Christophe Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

drbagrov Mr. Mitch Albom is the author of one great book ("Tuesdays with Morrie")and a few good books,of which "Five People..." is one.The same concerns the screen adaptations:the former (starring the incomparable Jack Lemmon)is a great one , though much, much underestimated by critics and audience;the latter is just a decent effort to illustrate the book.The difference is obvious: "Tuesdays" is a true story of a real life, wonderfully ( and simply) written, wonderfully ( and without that cheap Hollywood sentimentality) and simply put on the screen, while "Five People" is a piece of fiction with quite a bit of sentimentality, which was (quite naturally for Hollywood!)made into a tear-jerker.True, the acting is good (just good ),the colours are disgustingly bright and suggestive (believe me, the audience are not all fools to be reminded every minute , which part is Heaven, which is the good old Earth,etc),the plot line is not broken, the characters are more or less recognizable ( compared with the book),but there is always an after-taste of something inappropriately sweet that has been swallowed, and this diminishes the otherwise good work of the team of true professionals.While"Tuesdays with Morrie" was in many ways an eye-opener ("Wow, we still have great teachers of life among us!","What a magnificent life lived!","What a wonderful lesson of complete self-sacrifice!"))and a challenge to all Hollywood clichés,"Five People" deals with a pretty banal idea of interconnection of all things and people in the Universe and - as a film version - follows all the traditions of the Hollywood melodrama.And yet,in our age of extinct kindness and sympathy, such books and films should be more than welcome- just as a reminder that we still belong to the human race.

patbaker-1 This movie was a pleasant surprise. The director managed to include all that was necessary to tell the story from beginning to end, yet keep it short and sweet.Most importantly, the movie retained the pleasant, almost eerie feeling of Albom's book. Nothing syrupy: it's shown from Eddie's viewpoint.Good, understated performances from actors that understood the message and the meaning of it all, ensemble-style. Viewer may not recognize his or her favorite stars in this one.Five People is worth the purchase, because this film is for sharing and for viewing over and over again. In fact, it will be necessary to watch more than once to catch all the details.

mlleelizabeth This movie fails on so many levels. First, it is not at all as advertised. The description claimed it was a story about a man (Eddie) dying and meeting in Heaven five people who show him how he affected their lives. There is an implication it is uplifting. This is not true. Instead it is a depressing feel-bad movie about a man who dies and meets in Heaven five people who preach at him and show him their own deaths, and in two notable cases, how Eddie caused those deaths. The guy goes through the movie feeling worse and worse about himself until in the last minute the movie does a complete turnaround and you get about 5 seconds of "feel-good" instead of the feel-bad, but it's contrived and absurd. For the most part, this movie is an obnoxious, preachy guilt trip. It is also horrifically overly sentimental and smug in its sentimentality. You can tell the idiot who wrote the book was pretty much demanding a fistful of awards for his pretentious drek.The stories are ridiculous and contrived. They make more sense as parodies of bad Lifetime movie plots and reading reviews of it I see that it was, indeed, made for TV. At least that means no one actually spent money on gas or theater tickets for it. I kind of hate the word bathos, but this is one case where it is the only word that makes any sense as a description. And there are a couple of scenes that were clearly designed as sucker punches.The editing is choppy, especially the sound. I don't think this was done for effect, as it doesn't make sense that way. The art direction is acceptable, as are the costumes and sets. However the director doesn't really make very good use of the carnival/amusement park setting.The acting is mostly horrible, but given the bad script that may have been somewhat inescapable. On the plus side, Jeff Daniels and Callum Keith Rennie both do a fairly creditable job in a very small role and a rather important role respectively. However, Daniels's character does join the ranks of the arrogant and preachy at times. Rennie's, on the other hand, is a jerk but at least he plays the part fairly cleanly. On the very bad side, Jon Voight's pathetic, miserable Eddie makes no sense whatsoever. There is a complete disconnect between the character and the events of his life. And the scene where he plays Eddie forgiving his father made me cringe with extreme embarrassment for him. It should have been sweet and touching. Instead it is laughable. Then on the extremely horrible side we have Ellen Burnstyn. I do not think I have ever been quite so disappointed in an actress. She's usually wonderful, but in this turkey she's completely foul. She comes off as smug, arrogant and patronizing. Her narration is like nails scratching a chalkboard.The acting is mostly awful, the script is something the writer should be horribly ashamed of, and the advertising for it is flat out false and misleading. I usually like uplifting movies, so the awfulness of this thing was that much more disappointing.In summary: Worst movie I've seen in years.

MaraJade-7 I have never read the book, nor even heard of the book or this movie before. I saw it on the shelf of a local store selling DVDs last night and the title intrigued me so I bought it. I put the DVD in and began watching it as soon as I got home. It captivated my attention immediately and kept me in my seat the whole time till 12:30am when it finally ended. I caught myself crying several times, mostly near the end. I think everyone can relate to this movie, but I also think that the older you are, the more you will relate to this movie. This movie now goes on my favorite movies list. I will be encouraging my friends to watch it now, it is just that good.