Boy A Reviews

I watched this one is school, or else I likely never would have heard of it. It is certainly worth watching. Andrew Garfield gives a wonderful performance as Jack, a young man recently out of prison, who is trying to reintegrate into society. It turns out that Jack is no "ordinary" prisoner, however. He is one of two boys (called "Boy A" by the press) who were convicted of brutally murdering a young girl. However much of a monster Jack (born Eric Wilson) might have been as a child, the movie does a rather good job of portraying adult Jack as a sensitive, hard-working adult who really seems to be worthy of a second chance (he even helps rescue a little girl from the scene of a car accident.) However, given Jack's circumstances, it certainly seems unlikely that he will be given that second chance.

I will give the movie and also Andrew Garfield a lot of props for making me actually want to root for Jack (who is blessedly neither too angst-ridden, nor too perfect.) I also have to give...the actor who did the German voice-over for Jack a lot of credit, too. I have not yet seen this movie in English (except for the trailer, which I actually wasn't a fan of. It veers between telling too much and too little of the story.), so technically, he and Andrew Garfield were a good "team" and both brought the character to life. I am almost always ambivalent to German voice-over actors, but this man impressed me. I have no reason to expect that the original actors weren't also talented, as their body language/facial expressions, etc certainly seemed to suggest. I hope to see it in English one day. Although the story is not a happy one, I would say the movie is worth seeing-even for a second time.
For my first time viewing, I will give it 9/10 stars. This is possibly a bit too enthusiastic, but it did leave an impression on me.

Emotionally-wrenching and perfectly executed, Boy A is the first truly great film to be released this year. Though it was released in the U.S. a few days ago, its first release was last year in the UK, and there's no surprise in the fact that it racked up four BAFTA awards, particularly in the case of lead actor Andrew Garfield, who gives a relentlessly flawless performance in this movie. It is mainly through his protagonist that we are exposed to this devastating story of the often painful and frustrating path one has to tread to achieve redemption, a goal that may render itself unachievable even once one has done everything possible to reach it. People aren't generally fond of giving second chances to others.

Garfield plays an adult who's been imprisoned since he was a child and is finally released, deciding to go by the name Jack. Imagine being let out into society after not being a part of it since your childhood. We don't often notice this, but as is made patently obvious in Boy A, the teens are crucial years in figuring out how you're going to carry yourself socially and how you're going to approach a plethora of things for the rest of your life. There are several nuances that highlight how unfamiliar Jack is with his surroundings, from something as basic as not knowing what a DVD is to his social awkwardness when engaging the opposite sex.

Jack is taken under the wing of Terry (Peter Mullan), who takes care of finding a place for him once he gets out and takes on the role of overseeing the way he integrates himself into society. They decided to have him use the fake name "Jack" because, as we learn, the crime he committed as a child was far more serious than mere joyriding (which is the answer he makes up when his co-workers ask him what he was in jail for). Therefore, he needs to keep a low profile, so that the large amount of people who resent the fact that he's been released don't find out where he lives and works, etc. It certainly doesn't help that the media not only proclaims that he's been released, but the newspaper even features an age-progressed picture to give the public an idea of what the child convict, now a free adult, probably looks like.

Such is the beginning of a brilliantly-edited cinematic offering, in which we observe Jack's attempts at leading a normal life, whilst getting gradual flashbacks of him as a child (played by Alfie Owen). The most masterful, fascinating thing about this film is how the flashbacks slowly reveal things, and they are synchronized so perfectly with what is happening in the present. No, we don't immediately SEE everything that happened. We do find out early on that Jack's real name is Eric Wilson and that he, along with another boy, Phillip Craig (Taylor Doherty, in a fantastic turn for a child actor), murdered a girl their same age, Angela Milton (Skye Bennett). But we don't find out the details immediately. The film waits until we are closing in on the climax and the tension in the present time is at an all-time high to show us what actually happened, in a truly devastating scene that will be hard for many to take. It would be disturbing enough if the people involved were two adult men and one adult woman, but the fact that it instead involves three children makes this a horrifying moment... and we don't even actually see everything that happens.

Before that revelation comes along, though, we are still exposed to fantastic filmmaking. Boy A establishes a great parallelism between Eric/Jack's desire to redeem himself and the similar efforts carried out by Terry, the man who is trying to help the recently-released prisoner integrate himself into society. That's right, unlike in 99% of movies, in Boy A a character like Terry isn't present as a mere plot device or as a character whom we only get to know as a piece of cardboard. Terry is fleshed out three-dimensionally. His son, Zeb (James Young) shows up on his doorstep, and we soon learn that Terry's role in helping people like Eric/Jack might be functioning as a sort of penance for the approach he's taken towards the people he should have never neglected: his family. As it turns out, his attempt to redeem himself is frustratingly unsuccessful when we note the crucial role that Zeb has in setting into motion the tragic events of the climax. Just as frustratingly unsuccessful are Eric/Jack's efforts to be forgiven for what he did, despite the fact that he even saves a young girl's life in a crucial moment in the film. Note the irony in the fact that he uses a knife to save the girl by cutting her seatbelt in order to take her out of the car, and that a knife was precisely the weapon used to murder Angela, as we eventually find out. Eric/Jack is praised as a hero, particularly by his coworkers, when he saves the girl, yet once his true identity as a former murderer is discovered later in the film, the same people who praised him turn their backs on him without even flinching. This film is great precisely because of how accurate it is in portraying how cruelly unforgiving people can be, and it is all the more perfect because of how it incorporates the undeniable effect that the media has on situations of this nature.

Paranoia. When it creeps in, it can be an extremely powerful emotion. At several times in this film, Eric/Jack gets into situations in which he is vulnerable to being discovered as the notorious killer whose photo has been plastered on the newspaper. His buddies from work nonchalantly tell him they put an ecstasy pill in his drink, and he freaks out, naturally fearing that he won't be able to control himself and do something that'll expose him. After he's saved the girl and is praised for his heroism, a news reporter comes wanting to take his picture, and he almost tries to just run away from the situation, claiming to not like having his picture taken. There's several moments like these, and in all of them, we feel the paranoia that Eric/Jack is experiencing coursing its way through our veins, and we do so because of Andrew Garfield's hugely amazing performance.

I've yet to speak of the romantic element of the film. At the depot he works in, our protagonist immediately catches the eye of Michelle (Katie Lyons). There's not even a slight feeling of contrivance in anything that transpires as these two begin to develop feelings for one another. Even the sexually-oriented scenes have an extremely natural feeling to them, particularly an instance in which the camera focuses strictly on their faces, which happens to lead to one of the many heart-wrenching moments in this film: once the sexual act is over, Eric/Jack looks at Michelle and breaks down, thus releasing the avalanche of emotions that he's experiencing not only as a result of what seems to have been his first time with a girl, but also as a result of the entire situation he's dealing with. Soon, our main character grows weary of the dishonesty he has to practice in not telling Michelle the truth about himself. This marks the beginning of a truly devastating final act.

Earlier I mentioned how harrowing the murder scene is, but I have more to say about it. I have to admit that, fascinated as I was by the film right before this scene was unveiled, I expected this particular scene to be something relatively formulaic. I just didn't think any filmmaker could have the cojones to take a graphic and authentic approach to a scene that features children involved in such a heinous act. I was wrong. The reasons that motivate the boys to start attacking Angela aren't reasons I saw coming at all, and the untidy, disorganized way it all happens (which makes it seem very much realistic) is not at all what I expected. For that, the film gets an enormous amount of credit. As I said, it doesn't show everything, but it shows enough, perhaps more than enough for some people. Not everyone will be able to stomach it, that's for sure.

Towards the end of the film, the final scene of dialogue between Eric/Jack and Michelle is a gem. Flawlessly shot and acted. I don't want to spoil what happens, but suffice it to mention that light is adroitly used here to convey something very important. It's something that should still be obvious, especially considering the echoing of certain lines spoken earlier in the film, but it's always great when cinematic techniques help accentuate things of this nature. It proves that the people in charge of this know how to speak in the language of film, and that's quite a praiseworthy skill.

The makers of Boy A made the correct decision not to reveal the answer to every question (particularly due to the fact that we don't see EXACTLY what happens to Angela). However, there's no question that the ending is entirely tragic. As if he hadn't already acted his ass off in all prior scenes, the very last shots of the film feature Garfield at his best, in a heartbreaking moment that is incredibly tough to watch. The final lines that are uttered are the two voice messages that he left to two particular characters. These lines are spoken and the screen goes dark to start revealing the credits, and it is then that this magnificent film hits its toughest emotional blow. Boy A is a rarity: a film that succeeds hugely in all its facets, and much like last year's equally great Gone Baby Gone, it even leaves a great deal of room for debate once it's over.