This will probably the most challenging review I've ever written. I just saw the film last night and my head is still spinning with a trillion different feeling and conflicting emotions. ***spoilers within*** The opening scene was gut-wrenching - I was immediately filled with a sick dread that this young boy would join the list of famous people, including his mother, who have died on the Long Island Expressway. When the scene goes unresolved, balanced on a shaky rail as it was, the fear and dread of what will happen to Howie when the scene is inevitably revisited later in the film permeates every scene. It is clear that he intends to make a descision, but unclear as to what that descision will be. I had to have a drink before I could continue with the movie!
The controversy with this film is that it portrays a pedophile not as a de-humanized monster, but a well-respected, generally nice guy who has a problem. He is likeable, and the 'right kind' of boys seem drawn to him. We never see him attempting to pick up anyone who isn't in some way 'looking for it' - such as the teen hustlers who populate the expressway rest stop. When Howie enters the picture (a more conflicted and deep character I've never seen) he is drawn to Big John, not only because he is likeable and a potential friend, but also because he needs some guidance and love in his life. Big John is needed to fill a void in his life - a void caused by the death of his mother, the incarceration of his father and the departure of his best friend. He needs to feel loved (to feel love and to be loved back), and thinks he can find it in this most dubious and unlikely of characters. And herein lies the controversy; if the boy in a relationship like this is a willing participant, and even in some ways a seducer (the way Howie glances back at Big John when he's urinating, sharing poetry and inner thoughts), then who exactly is the victim? Roger Ebert was right in saying that a court case would see this subject matter in black and white, but the film itself occupies the darker shades of gray.
The one thing that bothered me throughout the film (besides Howie's other waste-of-air friends, especially the sister banger) was the sudden departure of his best friend Gary. Their relationship is close, intimate, but not sexual. Howie is unaware of Gary's sexual practices until after he leaves, but he is alone in that category. While it is clear that both boys are in love with each other (every scene when they are alone together has an implicit nature - long stares, play wrestling, flattering comments about the other's looks) nothing sexual ever happens, and it is with this regret that Howie enters Big John's life in search of the love and companionship that Gary took with him. It bothers me that Gary left so abruptly and without saying goodbye - didn't the two of them want to go together? - but I figure this is what happened: Gary kept his two lives separate, Howie in one, Big John in the other. When Howie tells Gary about meeting Big John and how he was set up to take the fall for the guns, Gary knew that he couldn't keep his two lives separate any more, and he liked Howie too much to get him involved in that.
I don't know, it's difficult to understand - I just really felt sorry for Howie being abandoned by absolutely everyone (the ending especially, which just didn't feel right). But my fear and dread was relieved in the final scene, thank God, so at least there's that. An incredibly well made film, beautifully shot, endlessly challenging subject matter, but the ending and Gary's departure leaves me feeling unsatisfied - no happiness, seemingly too much for the protagonist to bear.
The controversy with this film is that it portrays a pedophile not as a de-humanized monster, but a well-respected, generally nice guy who has a problem. He is likeable, and the 'right kind' of boys seem drawn to him. We never see him attempting to pick up anyone who isn't in some way 'looking for it' - such as the teen hustlers who populate the expressway rest stop. When Howie enters the picture (a more conflicted and deep character I've never seen) he is drawn to Big John, not only because he is likeable and a potential friend, but also because he needs some guidance and love in his life. Big John is needed to fill a void in his life - a void caused by the death of his mother, the incarceration of his father and the departure of his best friend. He needs to feel loved (to feel love and to be loved back), and thinks he can find it in this most dubious and unlikely of characters. And herein lies the controversy; if the boy in a relationship like this is a willing participant, and even in some ways a seducer (the way Howie glances back at Big John when he's urinating, sharing poetry and inner thoughts), then who exactly is the victim? Roger Ebert was right in saying that a court case would see this subject matter in black and white, but the film itself occupies the darker shades of gray.
The one thing that bothered me throughout the film (besides Howie's other waste-of-air friends, especially the sister banger) was the sudden departure of his best friend Gary. Their relationship is close, intimate, but not sexual. Howie is unaware of Gary's sexual practices until after he leaves, but he is alone in that category. While it is clear that both boys are in love with each other (every scene when they are alone together has an implicit nature - long stares, play wrestling, flattering comments about the other's looks) nothing sexual ever happens, and it is with this regret that Howie enters Big John's life in search of the love and companionship that Gary took with him. It bothers me that Gary left so abruptly and without saying goodbye - didn't the two of them want to go together? - but I figure this is what happened: Gary kept his two lives separate, Howie in one, Big John in the other. When Howie tells Gary about meeting Big John and how he was set up to take the fall for the guns, Gary knew that he couldn't keep his two lives separate any more, and he liked Howie too much to get him involved in that.
I don't know, it's difficult to understand - I just really felt sorry for Howie being abandoned by absolutely everyone (the ending especially, which just didn't feel right). But my fear and dread was relieved in the final scene, thank God, so at least there's that. An incredibly well made film, beautifully shot, endlessly challenging subject matter, but the ending and Gary's departure leaves me feeling unsatisfied - no happiness, seemingly too much for the protagonist to bear.