Review of Boyhood (2014) by Axgrinder — 15 Feb 2015

Boyhood is groundbreaking because it took 12 years to film, but the end result is a movie that is far from satisfying. With a 2 hours 45 minute run time, the film is much too long. I can only surmise that director Richard Linklater became so personally invested in the film that he was unable to leave anything on the cutting room floor.

The film is a story is about the life of an adolescent boy, Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and his slightly older sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater). You get to watch them grow up from about age 6 until they leave home for college. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke play their divorced parents.

Throughout his boyhood, Mason is subdued and reserved. There are no milestones in his life to celebrate, no tragedies to mourn, no joyous moments, no outbursts of anger; just long periods of monotonous existence. His life is like that of a rubber duck on a river. He simply goes where the river of life takes him. The currents and eddies periodically trap him and then take him further downstream. I waited in anticipation for fate to intervene, for tragedy to strike, for something - anything - to happen! Instead, watching Mason evolve into an adult was sort of like watching paint dry.

The lives of Mom, Dad and Sister are equally unsatisfying to watch. Samantha has a bigger, naturally ebullient personality, than her brother but the film focuses almost exclusively on Mason and we end up knowing almost nothing about her life.

Dad cares about his kids but is a late bloomer and, at least initially, is pretty rough around the edges when it comes to parenting. He sees his kids on weekends, tries hard to engage them in conversation, and gives them the kind of talks that you would expect from a Dad in a movie like Sixteen Candles. The speeches come across as odd because Dad lives with a professional musician in a dirty apartment complete with empty beer bottles, cigarette butts and a little drug paraphernalia. Thus, his words are completely incongruent with the life that he lives.

Mom’s life is like a twisted version of Ground Hog Day. She goes back to college, begins dating her professor and ends up marrying him. Over time he becomes an angry alcoholic. Mom leaves him and moves the kids to another part of Texas. Mom then becomes a community college professor, starts dating one of her students, and ends up marrying him. Rinse and repeat. Ultimately, Mom ends up alone and, as Mason leaves for college, wonders if this is all that life has to offer.

Minutes after Mason arrives at college he meet a girl, takes a mind altering drug, goes on a hike, watches the sun set, and realizes that he is happy. The ending is a lot like nouvelle cuisine at a highly popular restaurant: The wait is too long and what arrives on the plate is too little to be truly enjoyable.