BUFS Preview
The Boys Are Back
Amanda Bishop
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
In his 2001 memoir, The Boys Are Back In Town, British political writer Simon Carr recounts his triumphs and failures as a widowed father raising two boys with as few rules as possible. This week at BUFS, that story is brought to life on screen in The Boys Are Back.
The film, shot in South Australia, tells the story of sports writer Joe Warr, a workaholic dad who loses his wife tragically and then has to step up as a parent. With a handsome, widowed father and two cute kids, there's a real risk of the movie devolving into a sickly sweet hotbed of hokeyness.
But in the hands of director Scott Hicks, who brought us Shine in 1996, that doesn't happen. This is thanks, in large part, to the remarkable calibre of the performances. The beleaguered father is played by Clive Owen (The Inside Man, Closer), who is wise enough not to play him as a beleaguered father. Owen is a brave actor, and his Joe is a truly complex character, equally gentle and harsh, loving and thoughtless. George Mackay (Defiance, Peter Pan) as teenaged son Harry and Nicholas McAnulty (in his screen debut) as six-year-old Artie keep pace with Owen, being more genuine than darling, to excellent effect.
The other star of the film is Greig Fraser's cinematography. Fraser, whose work includes Bright Star (and my very favourite short film, Nash Edgerton's Spider), avoids all the pitfalls of the standard Hollywood heartwarmer, focusing instead on the intensity of situations and the beauty of the setting.
The Boys Are Back screens Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Empire Theatres, Pen Centre. Visit www.brocku.ca/bufs for details.
-Amanda Bishop
The film, shot in South Australia, tells the story of sports writer Joe Warr, a workaholic dad who loses his wife tragically and then has to step up as a parent. With a handsome, widowed father and two cute kids, there's a real risk of the movie devolving into a sickly sweet hotbed of hokeyness.
But in the hands of director Scott Hicks, who brought us Shine in 1996, that doesn't happen. This is thanks, in large part, to the remarkable calibre of the performances. The beleaguered father is played by Clive Owen (The Inside Man, Closer), who is wise enough not to play him as a beleaguered father. Owen is a brave actor, and his Joe is a truly complex character, equally gentle and harsh, loving and thoughtless. George Mackay (Defiance, Peter Pan) as teenaged son Harry and Nicholas McAnulty (in his screen debut) as six-year-old Artie keep pace with Owen, being more genuine than darling, to excellent effect.
The other star of the film is Greig Fraser's cinematography. Fraser, whose work includes Bright Star (and my very favourite short film, Nash Edgerton's Spider), avoids all the pitfalls of the standard Hollywood heartwarmer, focusing instead on the intensity of situations and the beauty of the setting.
The Boys Are Back screens Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Empire Theatres, Pen Centre. Visit www.brocku.ca/bufs for details.
-Amanda Bishop
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