Surprisingly restrained and tasteful, this is a very gentle, sweet movie with lots of touching, underplayed performances. It reminded me of E.T., not least in how successful it is in creating emotional scenes between a child actor and a CG creature. The only possible criticism really is that there's not a lot to it - it eventually gets into the Harry And The Hendersons type 'misguided hunter' territory, but most of the focus is on Pete's emotional journey when he rediscovers the wider world. If you're looking for a family movie that is the second half of Cast Away with some ET sprinkled in, this is it.
Rating: Good.
