Review of Boy A (2008) by Amanda C — 24 Sep 2011

Boy A is a film that stays with you long after the final credits have rolled. This is a film that builds the protagonist up from a clean slate. He begins with no name and a constructed past. Here the characters are kept separate from us, always with something between them and the camera, hiding within the frame.

This film examine whether it is possible to overcome ones past, no matter how terrible and even if we can, will others let us. John Crowley does a fantastic job of walking the line between not judging or blaming the characters for their past action, while never justifying them or making excuses for why it might have been ok.

While those around them do, the boys are never demonized by the filmmaker and therefore by us. They're people, who have their reasons right or wrong for their actions, and as such deserve a second chance at life to move beyond what they did in the past and to be given the chance to grow and change.

The images of the devil vs and angel and peoples perception based solely on a single fact work in opposition to give the viewer a great empathy towards Jack as who is is now battles with who he was. Andrew Garfield is spectacular, with both a naive, boyish charm, but also an underlying knowledge of someone who has experienced things that most can only imagine.

This is a film that hooks you from the beginning and doesn't let go as the underlying message is that any of us could be in Jack's position if placed under the right circumstances.