Director: Scott Hicks
Screenwriter: Alan Cubitt
Based on the book by: Simon Carr
Director of photography: Greig Fraser
Production designer: Melinda Doring
Music: Hal Lindes
Costume designer: Emily Seresin
Editor: Scott Gray
Cast: Clive Owen, Emma Booth, Laura Fraser, George MacKay, Nicholas McAnulty.
(PG, 104 minutes)

The Bottom Line

Clive Owen does a great job in this family drama. He plays a busy and successful sportswriter and who must deal with the death of his wife, by taking on the business of being the care-giver and home-maker, while still holding on to his job. This sensitive film dodges the stereotypes, and by reversing the usual formula of a mother holding the family together, it creates an unexpectedly tender and perceptive film. 

Main Review

Director Scott Hicks has proved to be an elusive film-maker. In 1997 he won an Oscar for directing the film “Shine”, which also won an Oscar for its script. He followed that with the moody and evocative family drama, “Snow Falling Upon Cedars” (1999) but then he withdrew from the Hollywood mainstream to make documentaries and smaller-scale films. “The Boys are Back” marks his return to the mainstream, with a story that takes him back to his origins, the father-and son dynamic.  It is set in Australia and it is based on a true story about a sports journalist, Simon Carr, wrote a memoir in 2001, about his experience as a single father. It was a modest hit, but screenwriter Alan Cubitt has turned the book into a lively family story, fresh and busy on the surface, but filled with shrewd observations and complex emotions in the background.
 
Simon Carr’s name was changed for the movie and it became Joe Warr (Clive Owen) who is the central figure in this family drama. He is a busy and successful sportswriter, which means he is often away from home, but he always comes back to his beautiful and fairly isolated house in the countryside. It’s a wonderful life until his wife (Laura Fraser) dies of cancer, leaving Joe with the 8-year old Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). Of course, there are offers of help and support but they seldom last. Joe is forced to assess his priorities and in the process he realises that his superficial view of fatherhood has concealed the emotional dishonesty and superficial ease that he has employed in his relationships. He’s stuck to being the free-and-easy, sporty bloke who earns the money, but is never around much to do the parenting. 

Is he a father first and a writer second? Can he be a proper, full-time father and not slacken his hold on his job? Before he can properly decide about any of that, another family event occurs. Joe was married before and he has an older son, Harry (George MacKay). He is having a hard time at school in England and he decides to come and live with his dad for the holidays. That adds another layer of complexity. It brings his ex-wife into the picture, and Joe must deal with this second son, who is on the verge of adolescence. Joe he believes he can manage it, and in a very boyish way, he creates a slogan for the three of them.

Director Scott Hicks

It is “Just Say Yes”. He believes that too many people are afraid to take risks with their life. They always say “No!”  Joe’s “Just Say Yes” affirmation is supposed to take away his sons’ fears and limitations and will teach the two boys to be daring, to seize opportunities and to stand on their own two feet. But does it work? The questions is whether the boys will truly test their limits and will stay within them; or whether they will just keep on pushing and pushing until they all fall down. If Joe was able to watch them every day, it could work, but Joe has to maintain a high standard in his job. If he loses that, he loses everything.

 There is another distraction in the form of a divorced woman (Emma Booth), also a single parent who seems to be fond of Joe’s boys and it is obvious that she is interested in Joe, as well. But family life is never an easy thing to manage. The boy’s take Joes “Just Say Yes” motto to the limits and inevitably get into trouble. Joe is also about to get into trouble at his job and suddenly he has to face that a lot of things that he has never had the guts to face in himself. Joe has always had someone to catch him and to keep him on course - his mum, his dad, his first wife - until she got tired of having a husband who acted more like a teenage son.  Joe must finally face that he has been good at finding temporary solutions, but he finds no real answers, and it’s not until he confronts himself, honestly and unsparingly, that he will understand what being a father and a husband really means.

Clive Owen does an excellent job of digging away at the layers of selfishness and irresponsibility that are so easily masked by his natural charm, and it is by far one of the most subtle and interesting performances he has given. Scott Hicks draws truthful and engaging performances from the young boys playing the sons.  They are not “cutesy” kids; they show their own complexity and their performances ring true. The film’s unexpected bonus is the exquisite location captured by cameraman Greg Frasier, who uses wide, high, soaring shots of the coastline, which become like a symbol of the freedom and power that these three guys, the father and his sons, are struggling to reach.  The music score by Hal Lindes retains that same sense of elevation and it catches exactly the tone of the masculine coming-of-age story. I think a lot of men, especially fathers of young children, will find a lot to think about after seeing this film.

Other Views   

“The Hollywood Reporter”, Kirk Honeycutt

Few films have so poignantly portrayed a father’s relationships with his sons as “The Boys Are Back”.

“Rolling Stone”, Peter Travers

Owen, in a heartfelt, award-caliber performance, never goes soft. It’s his core of toughness that makes the movie so funny, touching and vital.

“Philadelphia Inquirer”, Steven Rea

Relationships - between men and women, fathers and sons - are more complicated in real life, and The Boys Are Back deftly acknowledges that fact.

“Los Angeles Times”, Betsy Sharkey

“The Boys Are Back” is a bit like the parenting it portrays -- at times there is pain, mistakes will be made, but if you can get beyond that, there is pleasure to be found.