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I love this movie so much

best movie i've ever seen.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I've enjoyed all of the "Up" movies, and this one certainly satisfied. I'm seven years older, too, and I took away some impressions that were somewhat unexpected.I'd always thought I'd have liked being part of the project but a number of the participants were ambivalent or even hostile to director Michael Apted's efforts. They objected to being under a microscope for viewers to pick apart and comment on, and I suppose I can see their point. On the other hand, having a record of oneself at these seven-year intervals would be like possessing the world's greatest scrapbook.Toward the end of the film we're reminded of the series' guiding inspirational line: "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man." In many ways the dictum seems true. However, a few of the participants were chirpy and upbeat as kids but seemed rather beaten down by the time they were hitting 50. I've always liked several of the participants more than others, and it's interesting how these preferences survive over time - my favorites are the preppy schoolteacher (a very handsome child as well as man), the homeless politician, and the physics professor. (But I admit I am partial to people who value education.)Whomever is being focused on, "49 Up" makes extremely compelling viewing. Apted is a sensitive and probing investigator and I can't wait to see the next installment in 2012 or so.

This is probably one of the most profound films I have see in awhile. I think most of us have asked ourselves "What am I doing with my life?". The movie won't provide easy answers to this question, but it might point you in the right direction. The common pattern I found in the film with their lives, is that the teens and early twenties are the most tumultuous period of life, and not always a good indicator of who you really are, or where you're headed. But if you look closely, most are now content in their late forties because they seem to have come full circle from age seven. Compare their thoughts at age seven, to their lives at 49. Now ask yourself: Who was I at seven? What did wish for in life? What am I doing with my life now?

Michael Apted's unique longitudinal TV study of the lives of twelve (originally fourteen) London schoolchildren from a variety of backgrounds all born in 1956 is here updated to 2005. Reality TV is intrusive TV and Apted's subjects do not relish his probing into their lives every seven years. The original "lefty" Granada producers (Apted was a junior researcher on the original show) saw this "World in Action" program as a way of demonstrating how class in Britain determines outcomes, but with each iteration class becomes less important and personality and character more important. Each kid still has the capacity to surprise, just as life has the capacity to surprise them.At 49, most of them are leading fairly settled lives with long-term partners and an increasing number of grandchildren. One striking feature, though it is typical of their generation, is the number that are on to their second and even third marriages. In some cases their careers have been more stable than their relationships. Another feature is that the disadvantaged kids of 1963 have by and large done better than expected. No-one has gone to jail or been murdered and many of their children have done better educationally and career-wise than they have. The girls have had a rougher time than the boys, being pushed out into the labour force yet still having to do the lion's share of family maintenance.John, Andrew and Charles, the three upper class boys, have had a relatively easy time. John, now a Chancery Silk (was it he who read the "Financial Times" at seven?) allowed Apted into his life again only to give his Bulgarian charity some publicity, but he clearly has a comfortable and fulfilling lifestyle. Andrew, a solicitor, is "guarded about being guarded" and gives very little away (he did not appear in "42") but he seems comfortable enough also. Charles, the BBC producer, left the series after "21". Suzie the upper class girl who went through a bad time as a young adult is now mature, poised and affable. She says however this "Up" will be her last.By contrast the three working class girls, Jackie, Sue and Lynn, have done it tougher, especially where men are concerned. But they have held down jobs, brought up children and generally have become solid citizens. Tony the jockey turned cabbie, despite his infidelities, is still married to the same woman and they have grandchildren, and (something unimaginable for them in 1963) a holiday villa in Spain. The two "orphans" Paul and Simon, one from a broken home and the other the son of a white mother who had a fleeting affair with a black man, are still working class, but again solid citizens with jobs, children and grandchildren.The middle class boys, Bruce and Nick (son of a Yorkshire farmer), have succeeded in academia, Bruce as a maths teacher in a colorful array of schools and Nick as a Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin. Bruce surprised everybody (and probably himself) by getting married for the first time at 42 and producing two children. Nick's first marriage folded and he is now married (at long distance) to another academic. His career faltered when his longstanding research into nuclear fusion hit insuperable obstacles, but he continues to be a gifted teacher.And of course there is Neil. A delightful, imaginative seven year old, he was a troubled adolescent,dropped out of university, and slid in his 20s into depression. His thirties, spend in some of the colder parts of the UK such as Scotland and the Shetlands, were not much better and he became the most likely candidate for the first permanent disappearance from the program. But something happened to Neil in his 40s, and at 41 he had moved back to London and become a local councilor in Hackney. Now at 49 he has moved to Cumbria, got on the local council there and become a lay preacher. Somehow, you think this man has found God, if not himself, though it has been a long and lonely journey. This is the kid who at seven said he didn't want children, and the man has the same view, but he has found a niche in society for himself.I've no doubt Apted will go on with this until he drops – to get this far indicates a fair degree of obsession (it is not that the busy director has nothing else to do). I can't help feeling things are going to flatten out a bit – 49 to 56 are usually fairly stable years and this group (even Neil) are a fairly stable group. But, to repeat, it's a unique program, and maybe there are some more surprises in store.

This is not a social science film and it's not exactly an art film either. But neither is it just another version of Big Brother. I personally found this unique project profoundly moving in its originality. Through this film we get a deep sense of the way humans adjust to their circumstances, maintain their personalities and shape their own lives around what they want and can have. I had a sense of the innate decency of most human beings, our capacity for love and survival, the way in which character runs deeper than circumstances, but also the strong effect that circumstances such as the class one is born into can have on us. Most of all I was touched by the unpredictability of life: it would have been hard to say whose marriages would last and whose would not, for example.Having said that, it is unclear to me why so many of the subjects, who volunteer to take part in the filming, seem to fear and oppose it so much. As someone who would have loved the opportunity to revisit my own life at different stages, I have a hard time understanding the reasons for their reluctance and even hostility.