Boy A
by John Crowley
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DVD details
Actor: Alfie Owen, Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Shaun Evans, Siobhan FinneranDirector: John Crowley
Brand: Wellspring Media INC
Writer: Jonathan Trigell
Writer: Mark O'Rowe
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 81549
Studio: Miriam Collection
DVD Reviews of Boy A
DVD Review: Boy A (2008)
Summary: 4 Stars
Boy A is diabolically affecting, and its societal dictum is as strong and significant as any in cinema over the last few years.
You may not know the name Andrew Garfield, but that's irrelevant. You will. At age 26 and with a couple studio titles to his résumé (Lions for Lambs, The Other Boleyn Girl), he has attained a level of dramatic portrayal that takes some a lifetime and escapes others completely. The vessel for this breakout is director John Crowley's Boy A, the deeply tragic story of a rehabilitated ex-convict (Garfield)--dubbed "Boy A" in his juvenile case. Boy A is forced into leading a hidden life to protect himself from the social discrepancies that would otherwise hinder, maybe even destroy his chance at normality, success, and happiness.
As Crowley's second feature film (his first was 2003's Intermission, starring Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy), Boy A is astoundingly salient and equally persuasive, as are the actors, who improve its status from great to essential. But even before the force of its thespians hits, the film wins with the vitality of its writing and, specifically, the point it's set on hitting, which is best got at in its promotional tagline: "Who decides who gets a second chance?" The viewer is left to summon his or her own conclusion--perhaps the most distinguishably mature act of Crowley's adaptation--though it surely won't be considered an easy one, for the character that Garfield creates is so lushly endearing in his coyness and nervousness that the picture's audience will have a near-impossible time believing he ever had involvement in the heavy crime he's charged with.
And that's the brilliance of Boy A (and Andrew Garfield's role). Is the movie's focal study reformed or was he ever a monster to begin with? The provocation of such a topic is consuming, and John Crowley constructs the film in a way that maximizes its power, which is no less than shattering in its totality. Based on the novel by Jonathan Trigell, Boy is a regimented political and social voice--willed by the demand of today's society--that adheres to the world's paradoxes and contradictions and keeps screaming until they've been fixed and announced. It also happens to be one of the most heartbreaking films I've seen in a while. It made a mess out of me.
Description of Boy A
BOY A - DVD MovieAn intriguing tragedy held together by a pair of remarkable performances, Boy A takes hold of a viewer in its opening scene and never lets go. Andrew Garfield (The Other Boleyn Girl) plays "Jack Burridge," a name chosen for him by a somewhat mysterious, avuncular fellow called Terry (Peter Mullan). Terry seems to be the only person to have maintained a relationship with Jack during the years the latter was incarcerated for a terrible crime he committed, with another child, as a boy. (Their misdeed is slowly revealed in detail through frequent flashbacks.) This British film, based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell and directed by John Crowley (Intermission), begins with Terry smoothing a path for Jack to re-enter the world with a new identity and fabricated personal history. Taking a delivery job in Manchester, Jack slowly learns about everything he missed while growing up in prison: how to order from a menu, how to be a friend, how to woo a woman. In time, Jack enjoys the esteem of co-workers and love of a compassionate girlfriend, Kelly (Siobhan Finneran). But the more he becomes part of the fabric of his world, the more he risks being exposed as a fraud. A strange, almost alien tension permeates Boy A. A viewer gets crucial information in bits and pieces, and a radical shift in one?s perception of what?s actually going on in the story awaits the audience in the second act. As betrayal and manipulation slowly emerge from behind layers of obfuscation and false assumptions, Boy A takes on an unexpected tone of psychological suspense. Crowley has a way of underscoring a sense of disconnection in seemingly benign scenes with only slight accents, little visual cues that are dreamily exotic but add up to a nightmare. --Tom Keogh
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