| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 11/27/2007 : 12:58:37
Boy A
Another attempt from an award-winning novel to restructure this complex emotional material into a coherent film. It just about succeeds because the through-line of the story has been made clear without sacrificing the non-chronological development of the action.
It succeeds even more because of the performances - good across the board, but particularly so by Andrew Garfield as Jack - a young man trying to to carve out a new life after spending many years in prison for his part in murdering a child when he himself was one - and by his parole officer played by the remarkable Peter Mullan. Mullan is one of those actors in such total control of every moment of inner change, he can infuse even mundane dialogue with a back story.
Not that the screenplay here is mundane, though at times it is relentless and would probably benefit from a snip or two throughout. The film raises important questions challenging a society which offers no direction for children other than what they can emulate on the streets. The whole concept of family is so far from comfy middle-class expectations, so seething with neglect and repressed anger, that it's a wonder kids reach adulthood at all.
And here, some of them don't. To hear smug magistrates and legal power holders try to isolate little children as evil incarnate must surely stimulate debate about how fragmented society has become, and the impenetrable walls that separate sector from sector.
There's enough leavening in the form of naturalistic humour and the awkwardness of first love to carry you through some of the more predictable passages. It's unlikely this film will make it to your local cinema. And that's a shame.
If you see it anywhere - it's certainly worth a look.
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