More about The Boys Are Back
New York Observer: Clive Owen Finally Picks a Good Flick
By Rex Reed
The New York Observer
Excerpt
September 22, 2009
Clive Owen has either a bad agent or a bad eye. Considering his talent and charisma, it's amazing how many really terrible movies he makes. (The male Julianne Moore?) Submerged in a predictable rash of indistinguishable action flicks and violent crypto thrillers, his career has hit so many snags that it's hard to remain loyal. But his luck could change with The Boys Are Back, fresh from its premiere at last week's Toronto International Film Festival and a welcome reminder that the guy can act.
The Boys Are Back, a poignant family drama from Australian director Scott Hicks (Shine), is about the child-rearing challenges faced by a rakish British sportswriter named Joe Warr, who, after a bad first marriage back in England, has settled in the land of Oz and found marital bliss and fatherhood with the wife and soul mate of his dreams. After the cruel fate of her death from cancer, he's forced to come to grips with the responsibility of raising his 7-year-old son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty), taking a clumsy stab at solo parenting in a rambling hillside farmhouse in the rustic wine country near Adelaide. Dealing with pain, loss, anger and a career that takes him away from home a lot, Joe is aided to a point by his mother-in-law, until he realizes she is using her grandson to keep the memory of her own daughter alive. Joe plows on - flawed, making bad choices and doing crazy, dangerous things - but he's on the verge of a father-son breakthrough with the unhappy, confused child. Then, suddenly, his 14-year-old son, Harry (George MacKay) - a troubled teenager from the first marriage with low self-esteem and raging with abandonment anxiety - arrives, and the widower who is still a dedicated, self-centered bachelor at heart finds himself saddled with two boys to nurture and rear instead of one...
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