Greetings from Tim Buckley

A gentle, touching film about young musician Jeff Buckley, 3 years before his break out (and only) album "Grace" traveling to NYC to perform in a tribute concert for his father Tim.

Having never known his father, but living in his shadow, and yet gifted with some of the same talent it's an unusual and quietly intimate look at the connections and hurts between fathers and sons, even those who never met.

Penn Badgley does a very nice job not only with the young Jeff's angst, but also his voice, which is not an easy one to capture. Imogen Poots is lovely as a young fan of Jeff's father with whom Tim has a sweet momentary romance. Not all the performances are at the same level, and the film doesn't delve very deep, but seeing a father and son (there are various flashbacks to Tim played by Ben Rosenfeld) at about the same age, so similar and so different is an effective and unique structural concept. The tragedy that both men completed their lives eerily alike, dying far too young, casts a haunting melancholy over it all.

I was impressed by Penn Badgley's portrayal of Buckley in this 'snapshot in time' genre of movie. It was not, as other reviewers seem to miss, a biography of either Jeff or his father Tim Buckley. Rather, the movie focuses on Jeff's reluctant participation and eventual musical and personal redemption via a tribute concert to his father that took place in NYC in 1991. The action takes place over just a few days prior and leading up to the concert. I might add that the St. Ann band backing the various tribute musicians was tremendous. Its my impression that what you hear of them on film was live...or very well near it. I did notice some inconsistent editing and out of sync instrumentals, but this is not the first movie coming up short in this area.

Back to Penn Badgley...his musical takes were live and done with no lip syncing. His guitar playing was real...when is the last time you've seen that in a movie? His character was, for me, as honest an interpretation of a tragic character as I've seen in a very long time. The movie takes place in a period prior to Jeff's musical self discovery, a few years before his first album. He comes across as a idiosyncratic, often annoyingly self centered young person still searching for his voice. I didn't actually like the character portrayed in the movie and suspect I wouldn't care much for Jeff Buckley in person, (if Penn's portrayal is accurate) however, this is certainly not the point of the movie.

The pace of the film, which others criticize, worked for me...and, in some respects, had the feel of a documentary rather than being scripted.

I was a huge fan of Tim Buckley's first few albums...after Lorca, I moved on. Goodbye/Hello is one of the hallmark albums of the 60's: Happy Sad was a haunting art piece blending transitional jazz with folk. I didn't know Jeff's music nearly as well...so, I must confess that his portrayal is personally prototypical. Imogen Poots is lovely and steals every scene she is in...I thought her acting was fresh and unassuming and did a credible New York accent despite being British. All in all, I liked the film on many levels. -Jim

In the whole scheme of things, there are really very few films about music that touch the real soul of the art. This film does it, by bringing Tim and his son back to life. It is a tragic story, but the movie does not dwell on this. Rather it composes a sweet and haunting "song" to two figures that touch us, and speak to us through the story and acting here. Discovering Tim, and his art, is and his tragedy, brings us closer to the music that was created. We have to look for this after the film, since this project apparently could not get the rights to the songs themselves. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful project and very much seeing.

A wasted opportunity. The stories of Tim and Jeff Buckley are both tragic ones: massive talents cut short in their primes. Here was an opportunity to tell their stories in an interesting yet sensitive manner (and throw in some good music to boot!).

The good music is certainly there, but the interesting story is not. This movie just seems to meander aimlessly, and end up not really making a point. Many scenes just seem like padding, not really developing the characters or plot and just taking up time.

There is a degree of sensitivity, but maybe too much. It all just seems so pretentious and punch-pulling.

i had very low expectations for this and put off watching it for ages as it is not THE true Jeff biopic etc, BUT i have to say it is really well done. they really captured the legendary St Ann's church concert brilliantly, the lead actor was great too, very surprising to me. they weaved back n forth between that time and Tim flashbacks to the 70s, comparing and contrasting pretty much, but it worked really well. and even though they didn't have the permissions to play any Jeff songs, they still were able to sneak in Jeff and Gary Lucas planting the seeds for the song Grace together, that was really cool:) Anyway, this movie is more than good enough to tide us big fans over until the proper Jeff bio movie finally comes out...some day.