Review of The Boys Are Back (2009) by Troy C — 08 Nov 2009

"The Boys are Back" is a surprisingly effective melodrama about the loss of a loved one. It feels like familiar territory but is so understated, so void of cliché and so nice to look at. It is directed with care by Scott Hicks, known widely for 1996's "Shine", which earned him a couple of Oscar nominations. His recent documentary on Philip Glass should be seen by more people.

"The Boys are Back" is based on a memoir by Simon Carr, a sports writer and columnist, whose young wife passed away in 1994 after a battle with cancer, leaving Carr with a six-year-old son to take care of. Joe Warr is masterfully played by Clive Owen. Having never fully matured, Joe is at odds with any maternal instincts that his wife Katy (Laura Fraser) may have influenced. There is the obligatory scene where Joe sits with his young son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) to explain his mother's inevitable passing, but look at how the scene is played for authenticity over saccharine dramatic impact. Artie swings a monkey around his head, asking if she'll be dead by dinnertime.

A wordsmith by profession, Joe notes via an opening narration that the map of a child's mind is chaotic and ever-revolving. Artie runs around the house after his mother's funeral, playing with an airplane. Such behaviour draws unimpressed stares and sympathetic protests, but Joe allows it. It is never voiced, but there is a guilt over his shoddy abilities as a father swimming in his heart. Katy picked flowers from the garden, he explains. She took care of the chores, knew her son's teacher and cut the crusts from his sandwiches. All Joe did was watch.

Eventually, Joe finds his niche. The motto of his household becomes "Just say yes." To assuage Artie's temperament, Joe lets him get away with things that send the community's mothers into shock. He lets Artie take the wheel on rainy nights to douse the car with water. Football in the house becomes commonplace. "It's what he needs," Joe tells Laura (Emma Booth), a single mother who wonders if he is simply taking the easy way out.

Just when Joe seems to have established a parenting rhythm, the dynamic is disrupted. In the film's second act, we are introduced to his teenage son Harry (George MacKay), a child from a former marriage who carries feelings of abandonment. The film is tightly paced thanks to the evolving relationships shared by the principal male roles. Joe's home begins to look and feel like paradise, but until Joe finally matures and sees the need his sons have for some real direction, their lives with each other will ultimately be crushed by the weight of their mother's absence.

Hicks dwells on the romantic, hilly coastal landscapes of Australia as the wind caresses wheat fields, trading such shots in for the light of dingy street lamps shining through rain collecting on car windows to suit the emotion of his scenes. This is all complimented by a score performed by Sigur Ros, who refrain from meeting the film's most dramatic moments with customary bombastic string movements, painting them instead with light and fitting melancholy accents.

What separates "The Boys are Back" from similar melodramas is Clive Owen's tender performance. He has visions of his deceased wife at the grocery store and other places. They engage in conversation as he appeals to her memory for help. In another film, these scenes might have felt too ham-handed, but Owen plays them just right as a man desperately trying to do the right thing for his family, and for himself.

The film recognizes the small moments that comprise father-son relationships. Not being a father myself, I nevertheless identified with the depth of Joe's hurt as his son tells him that he wants to live elsewhere, and the response of Artie to Joe's every decision and action. Whether he likes it or not, Joe is an exemplar to his sons in most facets of their development into young men. Harry offers Joe the opportunity to recognize that a young life is processional, not static. His sons will grow up one day. He'd better make sure he gets there first.