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This Boy's Life (1993)
Released By: Warner Home Video   Rating: R   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: Warner Home Video
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro
Published ID: 4418
UPC: 085392461929,
Plot: A single mother and her difficult son find family life isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be in this drama adapted from writer and professor Tobias Wolff's 1989 memoir of the same name. Nomadic, flaky Caroline (Ellen Barkin) just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy, and provide a better home for her handful of a son, Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio). When she moves to Seattle and meets the respectful, respectable Dwight Hansen (Robert DeNiro), she thinks she's got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after spending a few months with Dwight and his children and away from Caroline. The boy's stepfather-to-be seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but to do so he emotionally, verbally, and physically abuses the kid. The marriage proceeds, and soon Caroline, too, recognizes Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him. She sticks with it, though, convinced it's the best thing for her son, and several years of dysfunction ensue. During this time, Tobias befriends another misfit, the possibly homosexual young Jonah (Arthur Gayle), while continuing to chafe under the yoke of his repressive stepfather. This Boy's Life provided the first lead role for future superstar DiCaprio. The film was written by Robert Getchell, who also penned such mother/son fare as Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and The Client. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
Warns Us of the Perils of Wedding Single Mothers...........
Added 11/20/2009

In this film, Robert DeNiro plays an earnest widower who makes the terrible mistake of marrying a single mother and taking in her poorly behaved son. Providing a home and support for this aging woman when other men used her as an old tissue. Thank goodness I live with MOTHER!!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
De Nerio Upstaged !!
Added 6/8/2009

Dicaprio is short of geneious in his roll of Abused Son...De Nerio, one of my favorites ,is very good in his roll too, but is much upstaged by Dicaprio, who at a very young age, gave probably, besides Tiatnic, and Whats eating gilbert Grape, a very demanding and concvining performance ever. What was most amazing was how young Dicaprio appears at the beginging of the movie. I swear it looks like the Director filmed this movie with a Real couple of years in between, so we could watch Dicaprio gently age. De Nerio's role demands that he playes such a hatful bullying father that he fools you into actually totally disliking him, which I feel his role is meant to be portrayed, and portarayed well it is!...Barkin is also very good, playing the role of Abused Woman Syndrome. Dont know the actual term for that syndrome, but it is very real and a sad coment on our "societal Hush Hush". Barkin Glows when she gets that.."Hey were out of here" additude. As the story progresse, she comes accross more as a sister than a mother...But after the hardships she indures in her personal life,..she demands better for her son. Oh, and WOW, check out the pompador Hair due on Dicaprio. This movie based on actual events is very grippig and heart breaking, and very much so because it continues right now as you read this review...Highly Recemonded, wounderful movie.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Memorable, But Difficult To Watch
Added 6/5/2009

This was a very haunting, sometimes very difficult story to watch unfold on screen. When it came out, I had never heard of Leonardo DiCaprio, but I wasn't alone as this was only his second or third time on screen. Anyway, he certainly gave a powerful performance and served notice he was going to be a "big name" actor.

Basically, it's about teenage kid and his mom trying to survive the mean father-husband of the family in a small town during the 1950s. Robert De Niro plays the dad and Ellen Barkin, the mom.

Leo plays "Tobias Wolffe;" De Niro, "Dwight Hansen" and Barkin, "Caroline Hansen." She had remarried Hansen after having "Toby" earlier, hence the surname "Wolffe."

What made this story tough for me was that, to be honest, neither father nor son were nice guys, although De Niro's character was far worse. The struggles - and that's putting it tactfully - between father and son were really nasty. Yet, as unpleasant at is, the story is memorable and it haunted me for several days, especially since it is "based" on a true story. How much of this was true, I can't say, but it is a dramatic story you will not dismiss.


0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Classic Leo DiCaprio
Added 2/14/2009


Love any movie with Leo! He is just an awesome actor and this movie is the start of his unbelievable acting career!

0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
This Boy's life
Added 7/29/2008

This is a true story about Tobias Wolffe. He is a boy who's mother is raising him alone, and he spends most of his days with his buddies, and getting into trouble while she's at work. His mother doesn't know what else to do with him, so she marries a man, whom she feels would be a good example to him. This is when she decides to send poor Tobias to stay with her new boyfriend to see if he can straighten him out (prior to their marriage). He is very strict, and down right mean to Tobias, but is always nice his mother. Finally, when Tobias' mother gets married to this man, he becomes more violent, and controlling to them both. Tobias still skips school to hang out with his buddies, and gets into trouble. Now Tobias decides after a few years of being tortured by his step-father, with beatings, and mind controlling, that he wants to go to a boarding school college, and his step-father tries to dicourage him, because he's jealous that he might succeed in life, and not be controlled by him anymore. They get into a mondo arguement, and it all comes to a head in the end. I won't tell you the rest. You have to see it yourself. Just a fair warning, this movie is good, but has a lot of cursing, and a violent sex scene between Tobias' mother and step-father on their wedding night, not appropriate for children under 14.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Warns Us of the Perils of Wedding Single Mothers...........
Added 11/20/2009

In this film, Robert DeNiro plays an earnest widower who makes the terrible mistake of marrying a single mother and taking in her poorly behaved son. Providing a home and support for this aging woman when other men used her as an old tissue. Thank goodness I live with MOTHER!!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
De Nerio Upstaged !!
Added 6/8/2009

Dicaprio is short of geneious in his roll of Abused Son...De Nerio, one of my favorites ,is very good in his roll too, but is much upstaged by Dicaprio, who at a very young age, gave probably, besides Tiatnic, and Whats eating gilbert Grape, a very demanding and concvining performance ever. What was most amazing was how young Dicaprio appears at the beginging of the movie. I swear it looks like the Director filmed this movie with a Real couple of years in between, so we could watch Dicaprio gently age. De Nerio's role demands that he playes such a hatful bullying father that he fools you into actually totally disliking him, which I feel his role is meant to be portrayed, and portarayed well it is!...Barkin is also very good, playing the role of Abused Woman Syndrome. Dont know the actual term for that syndrome, but it is very real and a sad coment on our "societal Hush Hush". Barkin Glows when she gets that.."Hey were out of here" additude. As the story progresse, she comes accross more as a sister than a mother...But after the hardships she indures in her personal life,..she demands better for her son. Oh, and WOW, check out the pompador Hair due on Dicaprio. This movie based on actual events is very grippig and heart breaking, and very much so because it continues right now as you read this review...Highly Recemonded, wounderful movie.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Memorable, But Difficult To Watch
Added 6/5/2009

This was a very haunting, sometimes very difficult story to watch unfold on screen. When it came out, I had never heard of Leonardo DiCaprio, but I wasn't alone as this was only his second or third time on screen. Anyway, he certainly gave a powerful performance and served notice he was going to be a "big name" actor.

Basically, it's about teenage kid and his mom trying to survive the mean father-husband of the family in a small town during the 1950s. Robert De Niro plays the dad and Ellen Barkin, the mom.

Leo plays "Tobias Wolffe;" De Niro, "Dwight Hansen" and Barkin, "Caroline Hansen." She had remarried Hansen after having "Toby" earlier, hence the surname "Wolffe."

What made this story tough for me was that, to be honest, neither father nor son were nice guys, although De Niro's character was far worse. The struggles - and that's putting it tactfully - between father and son were really nasty. Yet, as unpleasant at is, the story is memorable and it haunted me for several days, especially since it is "based" on a true story. How much of this was true, I can't say, but it is a dramatic story you will not dismiss.


0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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