BOY A

My first film of the festival and a world premiere to boot!

The story behind Boy A is loosely inspired by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson - the 10-year olds that kidnapped and murdered 2-year old James Bulger in 1993. The film centres on "Jack". We meet him as a young man just being released from prison. He has spent the majority of his life behind bars due to his participation in a sadistic crime as a young school boy. There is such public hatred towards him that he is forced to enter a sort of witness protection program for felons. As a result, he takes on a whole new persona in a new city with his only support being the life coach assigned to him. We are taken on his journey to settle into his new city, get a job, make new friends and even date - all while he struggles to adjust to life "on the outside" and the fact that he is forced to be dishonest with everybody he knows in regards to his past.

The film moves along at a good pace. The performances are understated and totally believable. I would especially commend the young actor who played Philip - Jack's partner in crime (literally). The key to his role was to walk a line between pure evil and childhood vulnerability - a difficult task to be sure and he handles it brilliantly.

We catch glimpses of the crime in flashback sequences and we begin to understand the horror of this boy's past. The film leaves us with unanswered questions regarding forgiveness and an individual's right to a second chance. Definitely one of those movies that would provoke discussion following a viewing.

I liked the movie - certainly better than average. The English accents were tough to decipher at times - but hey, I guess that is to be expected in a movie from the UK.

Before I actually saw the film I was trying to find out some info about it (like Sarah, I was taking my parents to the movie and was concerned about the potential for "uncomfortable content"). I was a little disappointed to learn that this movie was originally made for British TV. Although this calmed my fears of scenes involving a huge Roman orgy or a prolonged torture sequence, I automatically lowered my expectations assuming I was about to catch a Lifetime movie of the week. Now, I don't know whats considered acceptable for network viewing in England, but I was wrong on both counts. Apparently lots of sex on TV is OK. As well, the quality of the film was excellent - far better than what you would expect from North American television and I wouldn't be surprised if it got a theatre release on this side of the pond (the fact that the Weinstein Group scooped up the worldwide rights to it before anybody really had a chance to see it kind of supports my hypothesis).

Lastly, Andrew Garfield, the actor who plays Jack has generated quite a nice buzz for himself as a result of his perfomance. Monday's Star had a fairly lengthy article about him predicting all sorts of future big things for him (apparently his next film is with Tom Cruise and Robert Redford). If this little bit of fortune telling proves true, I can say I was there for the premiere of his first film and that he was quite polite as he excused himself to get by me on the way to the bathroom.