Starring: Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Katie Lyons
Directed By: John Crowley
Written By: Mark O’Rowe, Jonathon Trigell (novel)
Released: 2008 (USA)
Grade: B+
Jack starts work and actually enjoys it quite a bit. His co-workers are very inviting and he ends up making a good group of friends. Not to mention one woman who works with him, Michelle (Lyons), shows an interest in him, which is completely startling to Jack, but still very complementary. The two have a rough start, as Jack is very shy and unsure how to go about things. Can he really be blamed though since he has never had anything even remotely close to the experiences he is engaging in now? After a bit of time, the relationship blossoms and they get closer and closer to one another. Jack never thought he would feel this way or that anyone would ever love him back. He is tempted to tell her his past so they can have a future. However, it turns out that there is a search out for him worth thousands of dollars. His life seems so close to perfection right now, but the threat is as present as ever that he could lose it all in a heartbeat and go back to the child murderer that fuels the communities’ hate.
The entire cast gives so much understanding and commitment that frame the film. Andrew Garfield is the stand out though. He is such an effective protagonist in a very challenging role to gain the audience’s sympathy. Garfield succeeds giving us raw emotion and expressions that at times speak louder than his words. He is the energy, the life, the mystery that fuels this film in every sense. It is a completely astounding performance that gives the movie such power and escalades the quality. Peter Mullan did very good as well. He served as a wise and very caring mentor. It is not as if his characters didn’t have his flaws either though. It is revealed that he is at least partially responsible for giving his son a terrible home life as a child. Even as they are trying to make amends for the past, it is clear his real pride and joy is Jack as he s
ees him as his true son, at times forgetting about his blood born son. Essentially he gives us the one and only person who sees past Jack’s wrongs and his former identity. Katie Lyons was a pleasure to watch as the female lead opposite Garfield. Her character was often referred to as the ‘white whale’. She was not even particularly chunky, she just wasn’t extremely skinny. This issue really doesn’t even come up with Michelle or Jack. She is comfortable in her own skin and really embraces life every chance she gets.
The lighting in the film is a major component and is very reminiscent of not only the tone, but shows an entrapment of darkness and lightness, being violently thrown in each direction and always having both present. Jack sees the light that is surrounding him, but the darkness of his past will always be there, perhaps it is just too powerful. The film poses a great question of whether after being part of such a cruel act, can you ever have a life beyond this and have a chance to move on. Environment at times can be attributed to criminals reverting to their old ways. In this case, Jack is in a completely new place and has an entirely new life with new people he cares about. From what we are shown there shouldn’t be any question that he is a completely new person, a changed and now morally good person. I am not even sure if he ever was a bad
person. While the reasoning is unclear, loyalty and loneliness are most likely what made him do what he did, making him sympathetic even in his darkest hour. It is everyone from the media and even the people he has began to care about the most in life that don’t see him as they have before, but only see him as a murderer; someone who has lied and deceived them. This poses a possibility that perhaps people won’t accept someone like this and refuse them to move on are have any life at all for that matter. Maybe second chances are just a fantasy.
Boy A has very heavy mystery elements that make it up. In the beginning, we are given close to no information on the crime that Jack committed and why he is in the position he is. Having to create a new identity, it is clear that he is going through something that is not only life altering for him, but was for someone else in his past, maybe even for several people. Much thanks to Garfield as well as the script, Jack is a completely likeable and caring character. Some may have a problem with this, especially since it isn’t a retelling, but is still based on a few real murder cases. After all, it is easier just to see him as monster, inhumane with nothing redeeming about him. However, doing such things at such a young age, there must be some reasoning, which although would make him wrong and very flawed, it still would show a bit of humanity beneath what our initial reaction is. I have no problem with Jake being sympathetic, in fact it is a bold decision that makes the film far better than it would have been if it were just the typical bad guy that was shown not to deserve any redemption. The redemption theme does come in to play, but the question is whether it is enough or not. If there is justice in taking one life for another than shouldn’t it work the other way around; to redeem death by saving a life. It does show a drastic change of character. If Eric really killed the girl out of enjoyment as was portrayed, wouldn’t he be out continuing to do the same when the opportunity presented itself?
The only problem I have with Boy A and the one thing that holds it back from being brilliant, is that more of the reasoning behind the murder and what was really going on should have been shown to really explore the humanity element that was inside the killers. We are slowly given more information about that time in Eric and Phillip’s life though. We are shown that Eric had a terrible home life. He was extremely neglected and didn’t have anyone that really cared about him. He also had to witness his mom dying of cancer, trying to reach out to her to show how much he cared, but was only bitterly rejected. His relationship with his father is shown just to be an annoyance to his dad. Eric was constantly picked on in school and Phillip was his only friend, the only one that looked out for him. We are shown the murder itself, but not in its’ entirety. Everything that we are given of the past, is shown to us one piece at a time throughout the film as clues to the mystery that we are given. The way this is given to us is very appropriate since it is the current state for Jack; he is in the present, but bits of his past come back to him to constantly haunt him. As much justice this does do for the story, we are missing the full exploration of the mindset and state that both boys were in that could have possessed them to do this and actually go through with the whole thing. Even with this there is so much beauty, understanding, questions of enemies, society, and second chances that is a reality for many convicts today, Boy A is a great suspenseful drama that will make you think and reconsider your qualification for what really makes someone a bad person for eternity.
Directed By: John Crowley
Written By: Mark O’Rowe, Jonathon Trigell (novel)
Released: 2008 (USA)
Grade: B+
Boy A is a British film adapted from the novel of the same title written by Jonathon Trigell. Both are most largely based on the James Bulger murder case as well as aspects of the Japanese Sakakibara Seito case and the Mary Bell case. The aspects that were in common with these cases that were included in the film were that all were cases of children murdering children. In the trial of the Bulger case just as in the book and film, there were two child murderers who were referred to as Boy A and Boy B, which also happens to be where the title comes from. At the time just as we see, the judge had absolutely no mercy for the boys and saw jail to be the only hope for safety for all of society. When the convicts were released from prison they were in their twenties and their identities were changed for their own protection.
Eric (Garfield), after serving his time in prison for committing a murder with a close friend of his when he was a child, is now about to be released. In hopes that Eric has been rehabilitated and will have a chance of living a new life, his entire identity is changed. Now his name is Jack Burridge and he is moving to an entirely new place and starting a new job. Luckily, he isn’t completely alone in this massive transformation of his emergence back in to society. Terry (Mullan) gives him guidance as a teacher and a friend; becoming his support system. He teaches him everything he can about the current state of his environment and tries to get him to experience everything that he can. They visit the grave of Phillip, Boy B in the murder of the little girl whose life was taken. He didn’t make it to where Jack is since he took his own life, most likely from either guilt or misery. Terry is with him there, forcing him to forget his past and leave all of those horrible memories and troubles he holds in the past so there will be a possibility of a future for him.
Jack starts work and actually enjoys it quite a bit. His co-workers are very inviting and he ends up making a good group of friends. Not to mention one woman who works with him, Michelle (Lyons), shows an interest in him, which is completely startling to Jack, but still very complementary. The two have a rough start, as Jack is very shy and unsure how to go about things. Can he really be blamed though since he has never had anything even remotely close to the experiences he is engaging in now? After a bit of time, the relationship blossoms and they get closer and closer to one another. Jack never thought he would feel this way or that anyone would ever love him back. He is tempted to tell her his past so they can have a future. However, it turns out that there is a search out for him worth thousands of dollars. His life seems so close to perfection right now, but the threat is as present as ever that he could lose it all in a heartbeat and go back to the child murderer that fuels the communities’ hate.
The entire cast gives so much understanding and commitment that frame the film. Andrew Garfield is the stand out though. He is such an effective protagonist in a very challenging role to gain the audience’s sympathy. Garfield succeeds giving us raw emotion and expressions that at times speak louder than his words. He is the energy, the life, the mystery that fuels this film in every sense. It is a completely astounding performance that gives the movie such power and escalades the quality. Peter Mullan did very good as well. He served as a wise and very caring mentor. It is not as if his characters didn’t have his flaws either though. It is revealed that he is at least partially responsible for giving his son a terrible home life as a child. Even as they are trying to make amends for the past, it is clear his real pride and joy is Jack as he s
ees him as his true son, at times forgetting about his blood born son. Essentially he gives us the one and only person who sees past Jack’s wrongs and his former identity. Katie Lyons was a pleasure to watch as the female lead opposite Garfield. Her character was often referred to as the ‘white whale’. She was not even particularly chunky, she just wasn’t extremely skinny. This issue really doesn’t even come up with Michelle or Jack. She is comfortable in her own skin and really embraces life every chance she gets. The lighting in the film is a major component and is very reminiscent of not only the tone, but shows an entrapment of darkness and lightness, being violently thrown in each direction and always having both present. Jack sees the light that is surrounding him, but the darkness of his past will always be there, perhaps it is just too powerful. The film poses a great question of whether after being part of such a cruel act, can you ever have a life beyond this and have a chance to move on. Environment at times can be attributed to criminals reverting to their old ways. In this case, Jack is in a completely new place and has an entirely new life with new people he cares about. From what we are shown there shouldn’t be any question that he is a completely new person, a changed and now morally good person. I am not even sure if he ever was a bad
person. While the reasoning is unclear, loyalty and loneliness are most likely what made him do what he did, making him sympathetic even in his darkest hour. It is everyone from the media and even the people he has began to care about the most in life that don’t see him as they have before, but only see him as a murderer; someone who has lied and deceived them. This poses a possibility that perhaps people won’t accept someone like this and refuse them to move on are have any life at all for that matter. Maybe second chances are just a fantasy.Boy A has very heavy mystery elements that make it up. In the beginning, we are given close to no information on the crime that Jack committed and why he is in the position he is. Having to create a new identity, it is clear that he is going through something that is not only life altering for him, but was for someone else in his past, maybe even for several people. Much thanks to Garfield as well as the script, Jack is a completely likeable and caring character. Some may have a problem with this, especially since it isn’t a retelling, but is still based on a few real murder cases. After all, it is easier just to see him as monster, inhumane with nothing redeeming about him. However, doing such things at such a young age, there must be some reasoning, which although would make him wrong and very flawed, it still would show a bit of humanity beneath what our initial reaction is. I have no problem with Jake being sympathetic, in fact it is a bold decision that makes the film far better than it would have been if it were just the typical bad guy that was shown not to deserve any redemption. The redemption theme does come in to play, but the question is whether it is enough or not. If there is justice in taking one life for another than shouldn’t it work the other way around; to redeem death by saving a life. It does show a drastic change of character. If Eric really killed the girl out of enjoyment as was portrayed, wouldn’t he be out continuing to do the same when the opportunity presented itself?
The only problem I have with Boy A and the one thing that holds it back from being brilliant, is that more of the reasoning behind the murder and what was really going on should have been shown to really explore the humanity element that was inside the killers. We are slowly given more information about that time in Eric and Phillip’s life though. We are shown that Eric had a terrible home life. He was extremely neglected and didn’t have anyone that really cared about him. He also had to witness his mom dying of cancer, trying to reach out to her to show how much he cared, but was only bitterly rejected. His relationship with his father is shown just to be an annoyance to his dad. Eric was constantly picked on in school and Phillip was his only friend, the only one that looked out for him. We are shown the murder itself, but not in its’ entirety. Everything that we are given of the past, is shown to us one piece at a time throughout the film as clues to the mystery that we are given. The way this is given to us is very appropriate since it is the current state for Jack; he is in the present, but bits of his past come back to him to constantly haunt him. As much justice this does do for the story, we are missing the full exploration of the mindset and state that both boys were in that could have possessed them to do this and actually go through with the whole thing. Even with this there is so much beauty, understanding, questions of enemies, society, and second chances that is a reality for many convicts today, Boy A is a great suspenseful drama that will make you think and reconsider your qualification for what really makes someone a bad person for eternity.
I have read nothing but great reviews for this film.
Excellent review!!