49 Up: Critic Reviews

There's a Jesuit saying that goes something like ''Give me the child until he is 7 and I will give you the man.'' 49 Up says, here is the man -- and behold, he is a grandfather, too.

The latest chapter in Michael Apted's documentary series shows that at 49, lives reveal more about marriage and the life cycle than about class.

What 49 Up shows is how the past is forever changing in its significance, its context. The more you watch, the more you are committing yourself to watching 56 Up and beyond.

49 Up marks the latest chapter in one of the most ambitious documentary projects in movie history. Make that the history of any medium, for how often do we get to witness a time-lapse study of human life?

For under-30 viewers who still think they're immortal, the latest installment could very well be the grimmest and most haunting of horror films.

When I saw 42 Up in 1999, I thought the series had run its natural course and that it was time to leave the "kids" alone. I was wrong. They have just entered a new and exciting phase of lives that are very much works in progress.

On the cusp of their half-century mark, Apted's British subjects have accommodated themselves to what they were, what they are, and what they will be.

Michael Apted's Up series remains one of the great imaginative leaps in film.

I can think of no single movie, fictional or factual, that more strongly awakens our common humanity or that establishes such a marvelous, tight bond with its characters.

There are some clear themes to these zig-zagging life journeys, but they tend to be truisms (marriage is hard work but worth it) rather than chest-clutching surprises.

Michael Apted's 49 Up continues and possibly concludes the most remarkable chronicle of a slice of humanity in the history of cinema.

49 Up follows diverse Brits first selected at age 7 as they now approach a surprisingly becalmed middle age.

Dropping by on the same people every seven years like an old friend -- or an unwelcome relative -- Apted has constructed a peerless, suspenseful work that develops character to a depth that would make Tolstoy jealous.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the class-warfare lecture: Most of the subjects got on with living their lives, ignoring their class distinctions in the process.

The latest riveting, heartbreaking chapter to one of the supreme creations of documentary filmmaking, the 7 Up series.

Whether we actually 'know' these individuals or not is beside the point; we feel we do, and this enriches the experience of watching the most ambitious documentary project ever committed to celluloid.

A deeply moving meditation on the natural evolution of existence.

More than a deeply satisfying movie; it's a reminder of the wonder contained in ordinary lives.

Essential viewing

There should not be an adult in the western world who isn't at least tacitly familiar with Michael Apted's groundbreaking documentary series based on the idea that a person's personality is formed by the age of seven.

Time-lapse cinematography taken at seven year intervals.

Even those wondering about the gaps and "missing pieces" or what will happen in the future will not be disappointed by this remarkable work.

The wonder of 49 Up is its unfolding, within a little more than two hours, of so many specific lives...

Doesn't tell us about these people's lives so much as it splashes a cold hourglass of water in the face, reminding us that time can slowly turn us into someone unrecognizable, especially to ourselves.