This flawed film came out of nowhere the other night. We don't know if it ever was released commercially, but it appears to have gone straight to video. As much as we wanted it to be better, "Boys" suffers from a screen play that doesn't fully expand on its characters and leaves us wishing and waiting for more.
Stacy Cochran, who adapted the short story by James Salter, sets her story in what appears to be a prep school in New England. This is a school for privileged kids sent by their families to get an education. By having attended this institution will probably ensure the rich boys access to prestige colleges and universities later on.
Into this quiet background another darker story happens involving the rich, careless and perhaps promiscuous Patty Vare, who has had a terrible experience when a baseball player takes her on a night ride that is leading to sex, when the car plunges into a river. Patty, who is questioned by the police, is seen riding her horse as the memory of the previous night comes haunting her memory. In attempting a jump over a fence, she and the horse fall and she is hurt.
Enter John Baker, a student from the school, who is alerted by another student about the young woman he has found in a field nearby. John decides to take her into his dorm against house rules. They end up going away, ending in the county fair in a night that ends up in a romantic note, but Patty. realizing she wants not to implicate John, disappears. John's parents come to the school and they are helpless to put any sense into his head. That morning Patty and John meet again in the police station. It's clear they have found one another and no one will separate them.
The two main roles, Patty and John, are given excellent readings by Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas. Both show great chemistry in their scenes together. Unfortunately, other characters don't fare that well. There is Fenton, who helps Patty escape, whose presence is never justified well. As played by James LeGros, he is an enigma. His girlfriend, Jilly, is acted by Catherine Keener in a role where she is totally wasted. Chris Cooper and Jessica Harper play John's angry parents.
The film is not a total failure because of our interest in Patty and John. Perhaps with another director, and a better screen play a better film would have resulted, although Ms. Cochran, and her cinematographer, Robert Elswith, give the production a lovely sheen with the local color of the country in autumn, the county fair seen from a distance, and the staid prep school.
Stacy Cochran, who adapted the short story by James Salter, sets her story in what appears to be a prep school in New England. This is a school for privileged kids sent by their families to get an education. By having attended this institution will probably ensure the rich boys access to prestige colleges and universities later on.
Into this quiet background another darker story happens involving the rich, careless and perhaps promiscuous Patty Vare, who has had a terrible experience when a baseball player takes her on a night ride that is leading to sex, when the car plunges into a river. Patty, who is questioned by the police, is seen riding her horse as the memory of the previous night comes haunting her memory. In attempting a jump over a fence, she and the horse fall and she is hurt.
Enter John Baker, a student from the school, who is alerted by another student about the young woman he has found in a field nearby. John decides to take her into his dorm against house rules. They end up going away, ending in the county fair in a night that ends up in a romantic note, but Patty. realizing she wants not to implicate John, disappears. John's parents come to the school and they are helpless to put any sense into his head. That morning Patty and John meet again in the police station. It's clear they have found one another and no one will separate them.
The two main roles, Patty and John, are given excellent readings by Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas. Both show great chemistry in their scenes together. Unfortunately, other characters don't fare that well. There is Fenton, who helps Patty escape, whose presence is never justified well. As played by James LeGros, he is an enigma. His girlfriend, Jilly, is acted by Catherine Keener in a role where she is totally wasted. Chris Cooper and Jessica Harper play John's angry parents.
The film is not a total failure because of our interest in Patty and John. Perhaps with another director, and a better screen play a better film would have resulted, although Ms. Cochran, and her cinematographer, Robert Elswith, give the production a lovely sheen with the local color of the country in autumn, the county fair seen from a distance, and the staid prep school.