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The Boys are
Back
is a heartwarming tale of a father
and his sons. Joe Warr is a
traveling sportswriter. His job
requires him to be gone from home a
lot and he’s in and out of his son’s
life, bringing him presents when he
comes home and not having a lot to
do with him. Basically he’s a
provider and a father every so
often. But when his wife dies of
cancer his whole world is turned
upside down. He has to establish a
relationship with his young son and
balance being a single parent, all
while trying to grieve a terrible
loss and get his son through the
process as well. Joe and his son
Artie are also joined by Joe’s son
Harry from a previous relationship.
Harry is a troubled teenager who’s
lived in a different country from
his father his whole life. Joe may
have been in and out of Artie’s life
but he wasn’t even a part of Harry’s
life before the tragedy. Harry and
Joe don’t know each other and they
have to build a relationship as
well. The Boys are Back
chronicles Joe’s journey to put his
life together.
This movie is very
visual. In the really dramatic
moments before and after the death
of Joe’s wife Katy, there’s little
or no talking. That’s how it is in
real life and rarely is it depicted
properly on film. Director Scott
Hicks is one of the reasons why
these dramatic moments work, but
Clive Owen is the main driving force
behind these. Clive Owen is
brilliant in this movie. He’s great
in suspense movies and in action
movies but it turns out that drama
another strong piece in his
repertoire. He’s outstanding as Joe
Warr and he should definitely do
more movies like this in the future.
Director Scott Hicks did a great job
with the aforementioned dramatic
scenes but the general
cinematography is well done. The
scenic shots are especially strong.
A special note also has to be made
by child actors Nicholas McAnulty as
Artie and George MacKay as Harry. In
their first couple of scenes the
kids are a little rough, but after
those first scenes they get better
and you get used to them.
The bonus features
on this DVD are very light. There’s
a simple feature on the
inspirational true story of the
movie and that’s really all there is
to mention.
The Boys are
Back
probably isn’t as good as it could
have been. It does a lot of things
well but it doesn’t totally
encapsulate the negative moments on
the road back from what had to be a
horrible process. Even the low
moments where all hope would be gone
and it would just be beyond
terrible… you’re not totally sucked
in. Those sad moments are shown in
an almost positive light and that’s
really hard to get used to. Still
Clive Owen played the main role in
this film perfectly and is the main
reason why somebody should see this
movie. It’s not an amazing movie,
but it’s definitely worth seeing.
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