917. The Butcher Boy (1997)

Running Time: 110 minutes
Directed By: Neil Jordan
Written By: Neil Jordan, Pat McCabe, from novel by Pat McCabe
Main Cast: Eamonn Owens, Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Alan Boyle, Aisling O'Sullivan
Click here to view the trailer

CHOPPED!

Yep, this is one of the handful of films they cut out of the 6th Edition (U.S.) of THE BOOK. Speaking of BOOK editions, I've been notified by Barron's that they will be sending me a review copy of the 7th Edition of THE BOOK and that it should be arriving by the middle of September, so that will be something to look forward to. Anyway, onto the business at hand - "The Butcher Boy".

Francie Brady (Owens) is the main character - a twelve-year-old boy, who has a best friend named Joe (Boyle) and a wild imagination. Truth be told, Francie is a bit of a bully, teaming up with Joe to single out and continually pick on fellow youth Phillip Nugent. Phillip's mother, Mrs. Nugent (Shaw), tries her best to protect her frail son, but Francie isn't afraid of a her, just because she's an adult. At home, Francie is forced to deal with his alcoholic father (Rea) and depressed mother (O'Sullivan), but leans on Joe - his blood brother for life - to get him through the tougher times. After Francie shows an act of defiance that turns into an act of vandalism on Mrs. Nugent's home, he is sent away to a Catholic reform school. This all comes after the suicide of his mother. At reform school, Francie begins to see visions of the Virgin Mary, is molested by a priest, is visited by his remorseful father and decides to trade in his bullying ways to take a shot at the "Francie Brady: Not a Bad Bastard Anymore" diploma. He is eventually released from reform school and returns to his father; although is father is at the end of his rope, near death.

SPOILER ALERT!

You know, as easy as this was to get through, I can very easily see why they chopped this one from the 6th edition. I'd call it average at best and average does not a must see movie make. Before I get into the bad, however, let me take a moment to recognize the talents of Eamonn Walker. Now, I've noted on the blog in the past that I'm allergic to films with kids in them (as frequent commenter Ray puts it), but this kid was fabulous! I mean, even near the end of the film, I still found myself in awe of how insanely, uniquely good this kid's performance was. I'd even go so far as to say he upstaged Stephen Rea, who I consider to be a fine actor in his own right. Alan Boyle was also VERY good too and it makes you wonder what they're feeding the kids overseas to get them to be such superb actors. I'll go so far as to say that Eamonn Walker turned in the greatest child performance I've EVER seen. Now, I hate kid actors, so that's not really saying much, but he was THAT good. The story was so-so, however. Sometimes engaging and other times forcing me to question: "Why do I care?", "What are we building toward here?", etc, etc.

I'm not sure, am I supposed to be questioning whether or not Francie ACTUALLY killed Mrs. Nugent at the end of the picture or is it possible that this final act was all in Francie's head and that he spent the a very long time in, not prison, but a psychiatric ward, coming out as an adult and looking EXACTLY like his father. Speaking of that, just get another actor to play adult Francie! Don't parade the same guy out there in a duel role. I don't know what we were supposed to think really, and that's kind of the tone for the whole movie. What are we supposed to be building toward? Is the film about a boy and his feud with his adult neighbor and her son? OR is it about the mental stability of a young child, who was forced to deal with bad parents and some other rough shit? It was just sort of all over the map and didn't seem to have a really clear direction. I wanted to like it, especially after loving the kid's performance so much and the camerawork, which seemed to be shot for a much better film. However, in the end, I just had a *meh* feeling.

RATING: 5/10  Split it right down the middle and call it a day. Perhaps a re-watch or some time to reflect will help the case of "The Butcher Boy", but for now call it a good decision on Mr. Schneider's part to cut the fat.

MOVIES WATCHED: 713
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 288

August 14, 2013  11:33pm

853. The Crying Game (1992)

Running Time: 112 minutes
Directed By: Neil Jordan
Written By: Neil Jordan
Main Cast: Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Forest Whitaker, Jaye Davidson, Adrian Dunbar
Click here to view the trailer

"IT'S IN MY NATURE"

Because my wife and I were both off from work today, because she felt like watching one more movie with me and because she didn't want to watch any of the ones I previously had scheduled, I let her pick just one more replacement from the DVD shelf. This time around she chose "The Crying Game", a movie that she bought and that I'd never seen.

The film begins at a carnival where black British soldier Jody (Whitaker) has picked up a girl, Jude (Richardson) and is trying to show her a good time, before trying even harder to get her into bed. However, as it turns out, the girl was just a decoy and a member of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and along with her cronies - Fergus (Rea) and Maguire (Dunbar) - they kidnap Jody and try to use him as leverage to get other members of the IRA out of custody. From there they hole up in a desolate area, where they keep Jody tied to a chair with a cloth sack over his head. After a while, Jody and Fergus strike up conversation and actually become quite chummy, despite the promise that if their comrades are not released in three days, Jody will be shot. Knowing that he'll die no matter what, Jody asks Fergus to take his wallet and look up his girlfriend, Dil (Davidson). Jody wants Dil to know that at the end of his life, he was thinking about her. When the three days are up and the deed is set to be done, Fergus takes Jody out into the woods and knowing that Fergus won't shoot him in the back, Jody takes off running. Fergus pleads with him to stop, but when Jody makes it to the road he is run over by a military truck. Following that, the house where Jody was being kept is raided and everyone except Fergus is seemingly killed. Now, Fergus intends to keep his promise, heading to London to find Dil. He finds her quickly enough and the two strike up a romance of their own, but their relationship is saturated in secrets...from both sides.

SPOILER ALERT!

Don't really have a whole lot to say about this one, so I'll probably be keeping it short, sweet and to the point. I liked the movie for sure, but am not sure how it will fair on the upcoming TOP 20 list. It may be a case of too little, too late or even a case of following something stellar ("Blue Velvet") and not being able to come close to it's greatness. The film was like two movie split in two, with the first one being the relationship that buds between Fergus and Jody and the second being the relationship between Fergus and Dil. If I had my way, the Fergus/Jody stuff would've been lengthened by about twenty or so minutes, just to add another layer of icing to the cake. I would applaud that Jordan was able to establish and cement that relationship so quickly though and make everything that follows believable. I guess it's just that I was enjoying Forest Whitaker and thought he may have gotten knocked off a bit too quickly.

From Jody's death we get into the Fergus/Dil stuff and it was fine, but I did have a few gripes. Let me first say that I knew beforehand that Dil was going to be exposed as a man, so that was something that was already spoiled for me. However, it didn't effect my enjoyment of the picture, because I looked more forward to the inevitable scene where Fergus told Dil all about what happened to Jody and expected a really emotional, heart wrenching scene. Instead, it sort of pops out of nowhere when it does finally happen and it's during a part in the film where the character of Dil is all hopped up on pills, so the emotional reaction is nil. I was really disappointed by all of this, as it seemed to be what we were building to and it never really paid off. I also didn't like the return of Jude and Maguire. I felt the picture would have benefited more if we'd have just kept exploring the relationship between Dil and Fergus, Fergus trying to figure out his own sexual preference and how he was going to break it to Dil that he knew Jody and was partly responsible for his death. Anyway, those are significant gripes, but I liked the picture for the most part. It was engaging, the acting was superb (British film - what do you expect) and there were enough little moments that made the picture worth seeing. Thumbs up, but if I'd had it my way, things would've played out a little differently.

RATING: 7/10  Not bad in the least, just not how I pictured it turning out. It's a good film, but like I said, I think it will be too little, too late as it pertains to "The Crying Game" and the TOP 20 list.

MOVIES WATCHED: 698
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 303

June 3, 2013  4:23pm