Film Review: Skelig

The film Skelig is about a boy called Michael. His mother has a baby who’s a girl and the baby has to stay in hospital because her heart is not that good. When Michael is exploring the shed he finds an old man. The old man looks really ill and his breath was very stinky and Michael gets disgusted that the man eats insects and slugs and snails.

There is this girl called Mina and she’s the neighbour and she’s a bit weird and funny. One day he takes Mina to the old man.

The story goes from place to place –from Michael’s house, Mina’s house, the swimming pool, the forest, the shed , the hospital and the ruin.

There is an old woman in the hospital and her name is Gracie and she has to walk around the hospital and keep on moving because she has got arthritis. She is always giving Michael grapes which he never eats.

Michael’s father is very angry because the baby is ill. One time when Michael comes back from seeing the old man, he sees his mother shouting at his father and saying  “it’s your fault that the baby is home and it made her worse.” The baby has to go back to hospital. 

Gracie always tells Michael never to give up hope and that one day she will dance like she had before.

Michael is upset about the baby then Mina comes and wants to shows him a place about two metres wide and quite high with stairs spiralling upwards. And it’s  a ruin.

Michael’s dad burns down the shed and Michael rescues the old man in time and in doing so burns his hand.

Michael and Mina take him to the woods and into the ruin and they make him comfortable. While taking the old man’s coat off they find out that he’s got WINGS!

The angel holds Michael’s and Mina’s hands and floats round inside the ruin and when they went out of the ruin, he said “Did that just happen?” and after it he noticed that his hand got healed from the burn.

The baby gets worse and she has to have an operation and people think that she is going to die. Michael goes to the angel old man person bird called Skelig and asks him to save the baby. The angel says no because he has given up hope on life.

Michael goes to hospital before the operation on the baby, he goes to visit Grace. He finds out that she died, and he remembers what she said about hope. He runs to the ruin and up to the top where Skelig is. He wants to try and make Skelig fly so he jumps down and Skelig catches him and takes him flying. Then Skelig makes him sleep with his magic and flies to the hospital and saves the baby.

Mina and Michael say goodbye to Skelig, and when Michael asks him what he is, he says, “A bit like you” looking at Michael and Mina, and while he looks at these beautiful birds, making patterns in the sky, he says “a bit like a bird” and when Michael asks, “ A bit like an angel?” he says “Yes”.

The last scene was Michael’s baby sister back at home and Michael’s mother talking about how she dreamt about Skelig, though she didn’t know he’s real, and then Michael says “Isn’t it time we named her?” and his mother says “yes”.

Michael thinks a little and then says, “How about Grace” and so they named her that after the old woman.

I thought that the film was sometimes very sad because the baby was ill and the old woman died.  It was also a bit scary for me like when the parents were shouting and when the father burnt down the shed. I was scared and sad when Skelig walked through the hospital to save the baby and I was happy and sad at the same time at the end.

I think it was very good acting especially by the actor who acted as Michael.