September 30, 2009: The Boys are Back
It’s been a while since I saw The Boys are Back, and I can’t figure out whether my mood on that particular evening or the quality of the movie itself is leading to my diminishing opinion of the film in the weeks that have gone by. Clive Owen plays a man who left his wife and child in England to move to Australia with another woman who was pregnant with his child. This idyllic new life down under is shattered a decade later by her death, leaving Owen trying to deal with being a single parent to his younger son and also reconnecting with his older son. There’s lots of up and down in the flow of events, with the dead wife’s parents living nearby and trying to bring stability to their grandchild’s life, and Owen trying to re-establish his career after taking some time off to deal with his loss.
There are great visuals in the film, as one might expect from the rural Australian vistas. The simple acoustic guitar soundtrack is appropriate. Ultimately, The Boys are Back seems to deliver what I want, but it’s not really satisfying and I don’t know that I could call it good. Some awkward genre techniques get in the way of the flow (introducing the love interest with an obvious close-up, knowing exactly when the plot-pivotal disaster is going to happen to lead into the final act), and overall it seemed manipulative and kind of formulaic. I would have preferred not to be lured to the brink the way I was, even though we see the right resolution in the end. This is a fresh set of ideas to explore, focusing on the particulars of this family dynamic and this father’s approach to discipline by treating his children as mature and responsible contributors, when really they are young children.
Part of the trouble I had may have been that I found it difficult to believe Clive Owen as a desperate and ineffective father, because as an actor he projects such a forceful energy suggesting that he knows exactly what to do to bring things under control. But maybe that’s the point – that the confident attitude and resourcefulness still don’t necessarily to help with raising children.
This didn’t really connect with me.
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