The new Weinstein Company’s new British indie, “Boy A” opens tomorrow and it’s a striking, raw and haunting examination of humanity’s capacity for absolution, and not an entirely flawless look at the ugly side of humanity vis a vis this very failure.
In a career-making performance Andrew Garfield stars as Jack, a young adult with a grim past, but with the faint possibility of a second chance. Having had committed a heinous act a child and locked up in a juvenile facility for as long as was legally possible. Known as Boy A (as juvenile offenders are not to be identified by name), the boy rechristens himself Jack and starts anew under the compassionate tutelage of his caseworker Terry (a brilliant Peter Mullan) who can see the good in the boy. Set up with a new job and identity, the timid Jack attempts to start life over again taking in human experiences like love, lust, and joy for the first time in years.
Thrust into a new world, the sad-eyed Garfield’s masterful performance sympathetically captures Jack’s shell shocked, awkward and overwhelmed, deer-in-headlight senses. If and when we write this year’s breakthrough performances piece (here’s last years), this young British actor will surely be at the top of our list; he’s a revelation and an awe to watch.
After inadvertently saving a young girl and becoming a local hero, sweet and kind Jack finds his anonymity slipping away and his past almost impossible to escape. All the while he struggles with deceit as he develops his first true friendships and amorous relationships.
But the film isn’t perfect and the dangling, teasing and unexplained flashbacks to his crimes are ambiguous enough to court our sympathies and therefore become manipulative of where we should stand. We’re all for vague narrative and questions that aren’t easy to answer, but some of the conceits here feel not only manipulative, but rigged. There’s an unease that’s hard to articulate and maybe because the endearing main character is a scapegoat for this story at his poor expense.
Don’t you hate when you read something that sums it up better than you can? Or at least makes you think there’s no point in regurgitating or rewriting the sentiment because it’s spot on. “For all its sensitivity, thoughtful sobriety, and sound performances, though, Boy A finally permits itself an excessive number of contrived and/or clichéd gestures,” writes Slant’s Nick Schager and he’s spot-on. There’s a number of considerate and studied filmmaking choices and joys to watch on screen, but there’s also some glib and inadvertently insincere moments that just don’t work including a dream-sequenced ending that falls unsatisfyingly flat. As Variety notes, the moody film, “inspires respect for its first-rate performances, artful construction and meticulous understatements,” and they’re very correct here, but the film is problematic in spots. Further bad news for the still-worthy and moving film is that in the end, it’s bleak and depressing as all get out which could crush it with audiences that just don’t want to deal with that kind of red flag, but director John Crowley (who turned heads with 2003’s black comedy “Intermission,” we we freely admit to not having seen) shows himself to be an intelligent filmmaker worth following and Garfield is certainly one destined for bigger and better things once people take notice. But flawed choices or no, “Boy A” leaves you reeling with mental anguish, and impacting filmmaking like that is hard to find. You could certainly do a lot worse this summer. [B]
Trailer: “Boy A”
Music trainspotters should note, there’s an immensely endearing and comical scene in the film with Jack all E’d up dancing to the excellent 2004 house track, “Drop The Pressure, by Mylo that’s a pretty rad music moment.