Review of Boy (2012) by Brendan A — 28 Feb 2012

The second feature of director Taika Waititi after "Eagle Vs Shark", who also co-stars is notable for becoming the biggest locally made film at the NZ Box Office in history, knocking "World's Fastest Indian" from the top spot.

Newcomer James Rolleston plays 11 year old Boy; who lives on a farm in NZ with his grandmother and his younger brother Rocky, who believes he has superpowers. It's 1984 and Boy is a huge Michael Jackson fan, and is trying to impress a girl he likes by using his Michael Jackson style-dancing, but is thwarted by the school bully who is making his life difficult. Their mother died after giving birth to Rocky and they have never met their father, Boy spends much of his time daydreaming about what his father is really like- but in reality he is in jail for robbery. When Gran leaves the boys alone for a week, that very day co-incidentally is the day their Dad, Alamein (played by writer/director Waititi) returns from prison with a couple of his dodgy mates. Alamein has a stash of money he owes to some gang members buried somewhere on Gran's property and decides to use his sons to locate it using the age old euphemism "buried treasure". It takes Boy a while to realise he is being used and he must learn to accept who his dad really is as opposed to his fantasy version of him.

Personally I found the movie to be likeable enough with its cheeky and slightly eccentric humour, but quite overrated. (Just my opinion- the Box Office receipts speak for themselves- and I'm a bloke who raved about the likes of "Human Centipede", so sue me). Somehow I think there may be problems with this movie being accepted outside of NZ and Australia- mainly because viewers in places like the US may just not get it. (I think there were actually reports of it maybe being subtitled for some places because the Kiwi accents were hard to understand, ditto some of the NZ colloquial language which will confound overseas viewers). However I think the basic themes of acceptance, forgiveness and family bonding in the movie will ring true for most of us (yuck- sorry if I sound like one of those SPCS idiots!).

Not a masterpiece, but worth watching.