Boy A (2007)

The story of a young ex-con Jack, newly released from serving a prison sentence for a murder he committed as a child.

Director:

John Crowley

Writers:

Jonathan Trigell (novel), Mark O'Rowe (screenplay)

Stars:

Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Siobhan Finneran

10 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andrew Garfield	...	Jack Burridge
Peter Mullan	...	Terry
Siobhan Finneran	...	Kelly
Alfie Owen	...	Eric Wilson
Victoria Brazier	...	Teacher
Skye Bennett	...	Angela
Madeleine Rakic-Platt	...	Schoolgirl
Josef Altin	...	Bully
Dudley Brewis	...	2nd Bully
Leigh Symonds	...	Eric's Dad
Maria Gough	...	Eric's Mum
Taylor Doherty	...	Philip Craig
Jeremy Swift	...	Dave
Shaun Evans	...	Chris
Carlene Hanson	...	Waitress

Storyline

A young man is released from prison after many years and given a new identity in a new town. Aided by a supervisor who becomes like a father to him he finds a job and friends and hesitantly starts a relationship with a compassionate girl. But the secret of the heinous crime he committed as a boy weighs down on him, and he learns that it is not so easy to escape your past.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | identity | murder | new identity | girl | 

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Taglines:

Who Decides Who Gets A Second Chance?

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, sexuality, some disturbing content and brief drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [jp]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 September 2008 (Singapore)

Also Known As:

A Rapaz

Filming Locations:

Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$13,024 (USA) (25 July 2008)

Gross:

$106,368 (USA) (22 August 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cuba Pictures, Film Four

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In a retrospective scene young Eric and his friend Philip are walking around impersonating Spider-Man shooting web and swinging along the street. Andrew Garfield, the actor playing old Eric/ Jack, is Peter Parker/Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man.

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Quotes

Michelle: [about Jack's local hero news in the paper] Hey hero! Look what I've got!
Jack Burridge: [embarrassed] Horrible, horrible.

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Connections

Featured in Screenwipe: Review of the Year 2007 (2007)

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Soundtracks

"The Warning"
Performed by Hot Chip

User Reviews

beautiful and bleak

This movie hearkens back to the great working class British film dramas of the 1960s. Inspired, I believe, by an actual crime of about a decade ago, in which one child killed another child, the movie provocatively imagines the life of the killer many years afterward. At one point the protagonist is called a monster by a character who has never met him. I was reminded of the cover of a major news magazine at the time of the Columbine massacre, which featured a picture of the adolescent killers with the caption "monsters." I thought to myself that, however disturbed, these are still human beings more like than unlike the rest of us, and what does it say about the rest of us if we deny their humanity and refuse to look at the source of their disturbance? This is the very starting point of "Boy A" and the conclusions it reaches about "the rest of us" are bleak. This is a deeply, disturbingly sad movie. I found it intensely involving, and intensely moving. However, if you watch it, be prepared for a vision of humanity so dark that the most humane character in the story is a murderer.