OUTSTANDING
Added 7/19/2009
Great, wonderful and moving.. I cried my eyes out... EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE..... EVERYONE!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Wow, Speechless, it's that good
Added 12/31/2008
This is one fantastic film. Alienation, peer pressure, friendship, love, hate, fiction, reality, truth, jealousy. And can a person ever really be rehabilitated? Just a few of the thoughts I had while watching this film.
There are so many wonderful and troubling things going on during this hour and a half flim. It's very hard to separate what is real, what is true, and what is fictional. Are Jack's flashbacks to his childhood truth, or are they fiction he makes up to survive? Is his relationship with Michelle real or a fantasy? This fiction thread was driven further home in a brief hommage to Antonioni's Blow Up. Jack reaches a point of no return, just as David Hemmings does in Blow Up. There's a series of images of wind blowing through the trees, along with the singular sound of that wind in both films.
The acting is outstanding. I felt drawn into the lives of each character as the film progressed. There's a few pacing issues here and there, some scenes that could be shortened. But overall, this was a very tight, well done film.
This is so worth watching. Just be warned, it's not a happy film. And you can almost predict what will happen, but your mind keeps saying, no don't let that happen.
There are no special features on the DVD. Just a bunch of previews. Miriam Collection, the DVD production company, has spotty releases. And the previews on this disc are a good indication. Boy A is a diamond among the previews included here.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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I can't quite give this five stars...
Added 12/12/2008
Boy A is definitely a powerful, gripping drama that you simply can't stop watching. But I'm put off a little bit by the way Boy A's friends and lover react to him. He's constantly putting his head down and not talking. Now *my* friends would consider him to be some kind of retard. Yet everyone he interacts with is generous with support and compliments. I can't see any real person in this age group who would go the extra mile to pull A out of his dumps. I know this is essential to the plot. I just don't buy it.
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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"Boy A" an outstanding film
Added 12/1/2008
Director John Crowley has created a masterful screen adaptation of Jonathan Trigell's first novel "Boy A". It graphically chronicles Eric Wilson's attempt to establish a new life and new identity as Jack Burridge after his release from prison for a murder committed while he was a young boy. Andrew Garfield as Jack conveys his character's anguish as he struggles to lead a "normal" life, assisted by Terry, his social worker (Peter Mullan).
The close relationship between Terry and Jack is threatened by the arrival of Terry's emotionally disenfranchised son, Zeb (James Young).
Outstanding performances by Garfield and Taylor Doherty as the coldly vicious Philip Craig, Jack's juvenile co-accused, give the film a disturbing authenticity.
This exceptional film questions the possibility of redemption and explores the overpowering and corrosive influences of jealousy and prejudice.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Stellar Performance, Gripping UK Drama
Added 11/25/2008
BOY A is a gut-wrenching character study of a tormented, young ex-con who struggles to start a new life & break free of the haunting grip of his crime & troubled youth. I will avoid as many specifics about the film as possible because I think, as other reviewers do, that it's best to see it without too much advance knowledge of the plot.
Andrew Garfield is most convincing in his portrayal of BOY A, and Peter Mullan gives another of his fine performances as the case worker who does all in his power to smooth the transition from prison to society for BOY A by helping him to a assume a new identity under a federal relocation program.
NOTE: the strong accents will challenge even the best viewers of UK films; I found the subtitles helpful but not necessary to grasp the compelling, disturbing nature of this emotion-laden story.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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