Ugly Step-Sister
Added 5/3/2009
Much of what makes this a "good movie" comes about because the book from which it comes is a great work of literature, whereas the movie's faults reside solely within itself, arising particularly from questionable directorial decisions. The novel deserves far more attention and respect--even awe--than it has garnered thus far, while the movie, and particularly its direction, are subject to second-guessing, to put it mildly.
Most importantly, the entire tone of the movie is handled incorrectly. These events are not comedic. They are tragic. What's funny about broken dreams, poverty, suicide, alcoholism, child molestation, insanity, and murder? Absolutely nothing! And yet, at every turn, the director attempts to "lighten up" this journey into darkness with silly, happy music to lend a madcap feel to these events, as though none of this really matters. The voice-overs are merry, downright gleeful, in tone. Isn't it funny that Dad is beating Mom again? Oh well, same old thing, ha-ha! The director repeats over and over in his comments to the film that this is a comedy, this is a comedy, as though trying to convince himself, and, to be sure, the novel is not without its savage, opaque humor. But the relative ratio of tragedy to comedy presented in the film is flatly inappropriate, and it creates a disconnect between Francie's actions and the emotional circumstances that help to inspire them. It's as though the director is telling us that these events are too tragic to be portrayed in all their ugliness, so why not lessen the impact with a good ole romp. He doesn't trust us with the truth.
How long do we see Francie in the slaughterhoue? Seconds. Yet the novel shows us just how much the circumstances of Francie's job prey upon his mind. The pigs know they are in a slaughterhouse. They are intelligent enough to grasp that they will die and cannot escape. They smell fear and blood, and we are made to experience this too. The Francie of the novel is awash in blood and death and in the knowledge of these, and yet in the movie only Mr Leddy is shown to kill a pig, and only off-camera. Where is the horror these events should instill in us? It is giggled away.
And Francie's mother's furious cake-baking? It's treated as everything else is treated in the film: a silly quirk, an idiosyncrasy, a slight over-reaction. The novel makes clear her frantic baking is her desperate attempt to control at least some aspect of her tragic life or to run away from it just as fast and as far as she can. Again, this is not funny, should not be treated as funny. We know from the novel, by the way, that Uncle Alo is a fraud and has come to the party hoping to get a little cash...an important fact left out of the film. The film shows him as a misunderstood hero, whereas readers know him to be just another nail in the social consciousness of the family's coffin, as it were.
Comedic tone aside, there are other serious flaws with this film. Did anyone notice that Francie goes to Dublin early in the morning, has breakfast, sees a movie, buys Ma a present, then comes home in the afternoon to interrupt his mother's funeral? This was a very jarring flaw in the film's timeline. We are never shown that he is gone for more than a day. We know Ma was always in a rush, but.....
And Francie beating up two grown men when he himself is about 10 years old? Ludicrous. Taking the actor who played Francie's dad and dying his hair orange to play an older version of Francie? Dumb. Who didn't feel cheated by this laziness on the part of the director?
Buy the book. Read the novel. And yes, watch the movie, too. It's still better than many. But give the credit where it is due: To the strength of the original writer's vision and not to its careless, happy-go-lucky, watered-down cinematic step-sister
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" You've won Mrs.Nugent, Joe is gone forever "
Added 4/21/2009
During the 1960's people were fearful of losing their world. What with the Cuban Missle Crises and the threat of Nuclear Winter, it's little wonder many hid in prayerful disillusion. For two young Irish boys, something loomed closer. Their lives encompassed their town, their family and their friendship. The first is Joe Purcell (Alan Boyle) a typical Irish boy out to enjoy his youth. The second is his best and closest friend named Francis Brady (Eamonn Owens) who becomes the unlikely hero in the movie, "The Butcher Boy." To Joe, friendship is a temporary bond which enhances life with laughter, pranks and boyhood imagination. But to Francis Brady, friendship is permanent and indelible which nothing on the planet, including Atomic fire, can separate. Enter, the boy's Nemesis, the town gossip and constant irritation to their bond. Mrs. Nugent, (Fiona Shaw) sees the boys as lowly delinquents, petty trouble makers, vicious bullies and future criminals. During the escalating conflict, the audience watches as Francis loses many of the people he loves. Eventually, Mrs. Nugent causes him to lose his best friend. Vengefully, Francis marks her for ultimate punishment. Audiences must decided the boy's reason for his erratic behavior. Was it his drunken father's (Stephen Rea) physical abuse, his mother's suicidal tendencies, incarceration at reform school, becoming a victim of sexual abuse by Father Sullivan (Milo O'Shea), subsequent shock treatments, increasing mental delusions of space aliens or iconic religious figures. It's little wonder Francsis commits the ultimate act of revenge. This is an honest, straight forward movie, which depicts the inner workings of a fragile but psychotic boy in crises. Many people allow maturity to transform them into adults, but some refuse, paying the inevitable price for doing so. ****
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Black Comedy Chronicles a Boy's Descent into Psychosis
Added 11/13/2008
I had no idea what I was getting into when I watched this. Heartbreaking, darkly comic, but undeniably realistic, this film shows a fairly resourceful preteen boy's coping skills cruelly overcome by his family's misery and his best friend's abandonment. Francie's desperate fantasies that his friend Joe still cares about him, and his quickly-masked moments of devastation when those fantasies are crushed, are beautifully acted by young Eamonn Owens (and beautifully directed by Neil Jordan). Although the climax is shocking, the plot points leading up to it require no suspension of disbelief. The humor that pervades both the narration and the young Francie character makes you chuckle even as your heart aches. A unique and brilliantly-done film.
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I see great things in store for young, and talented Eamonn Owens
Added 4/8/2008
he just bursts off the screen. It's been a long, long, time since I've experienced such terrific acting for one so young. He reminds me of Mickey Rooney, in "A Mid-Summers Nite Dream", he was also so young but he also bursts off the screen. Even though the age between the two actors is great young Owen is almost a re-incarnation of Rooney (even though Rooney is still alive). My only complaint is the thick brogue is sometimes hard to follow. But, who cares, young Eamonn stole this movie.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I may have erred but I left before I got any older
Added 3/29/2008
I don't know. I gave this one 35 minutes before I shut it off in frustration. From the plot description, I imagine it was gonna go somewhere I would have enjoyed but I was getting ticked that it was taking so long for anything to happen. Anything! I imagine I may have cheated myself from some entertaining twistivities but don't make me wait more than a half hour to even warm up! I mean, NOTHING was happening of interest! I'm a deep thinker. I can appreciate elaborate plots, the necessary setup, the look into how a dark mind is forged but...nope. Couldn't last the warmup.
3 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Ugly Step-Sister
Added 5/3/2009
Much of what makes this a "good movie" comes about because the book from which it comes is a great work of literature, whereas the movie's faults reside solely within itself, arising particularly from questionable directorial decisions. The novel deserves far more attention and respect--even awe--than it has garnered thus far, while the movie, and particularly its direction, are subject to second-guessing, to put it mildly.
Most importantly, the entire tone of the movie is handled incorrectly. These events are not comedic. They are tragic. What's funny about broken dreams, poverty, suicide, alcoholism, child molestation, insanity, and murder? Absolutely nothing! And yet, at every turn, the director attempts to "lighten up" this journey into darkness with silly, happy music to lend a madcap feel to these events, as though none of this really matters. The voice-overs are merry, downright gleeful, in tone. Isn't it funny that Dad is beating Mom again? Oh well, same old thing, ha-ha! The director repeats over and over in his comments to the film that this is a comedy, this is a comedy, as though trying to convince himself, and, to be sure, the novel is not without its savage, opaque humor. But the relative ratio of tragedy to comedy presented in the film is flatly inappropriate, and it creates a disconnect between Francie's actions and the emotional circumstances that help to inspire them. It's as though the director is telling us that these events are too tragic to be portrayed in all their ugliness, so why not lessen the impact with a good ole romp. He doesn't trust us with the truth.
How long do we see Francie in the slaughterhoue? Seconds. Yet the novel shows us just how much the circumstances of Francie's job prey upon his mind. The pigs know they are in a slaughterhouse. They are intelligent enough to grasp that they will die and cannot escape. They smell fear and blood, and we are made to experience this too. The Francie of the novel is awash in blood and death and in the knowledge of these, and yet in the movie only Mr Leddy is shown to kill a pig, and only off-camera. Where is the horror these events should instill in us? It is giggled away.
And Francie's mother's furious cake-baking? It's treated as everything else is treated in the film: a silly quirk, an idiosyncrasy, a slight over-reaction. The novel makes clear her frantic baking is her desperate attempt to control at least some aspect of her tragic life or to run away from it just as fast and as far as she can. Again, this is not funny, should not be treated as funny. We know from the novel, by the way, that Uncle Alo is a fraud and has come to the party hoping to get a little cash...an important fact left out of the film. The film shows him as a misunderstood hero, whereas readers know him to be just another nail in the social consciousness of the family's coffin, as it were.
Comedic tone aside, there are other serious flaws with this film. Did anyone notice that Francie goes to Dublin early in the morning, has breakfast, sees a movie, buys Ma a present, then comes home in the afternoon to interrupt his mother's funeral? This was a very jarring flaw in the film's timeline. We are never shown that he is gone for more than a day. We know Ma was always in a rush, but.....
And Francie beating up two grown men when he himself is about 10 years old? Ludicrous. Taking the actor who played Francie's dad and dying his hair orange to play an older version of Francie? Dumb. Who didn't feel cheated by this laziness on the part of the director?
Buy the book. Read the novel. And yes, watch the movie, too. It's still better than many. But give the credit where it is due: To the strength of the original writer's vision and not to its careless, happy-go-lucky, watered-down cinematic step-sister
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
" You've won Mrs.Nugent, Joe is gone forever "
Added 4/21/2009
During the 1960's people were fearful of losing their world. What with the Cuban Missle Crises and the threat of Nuclear Winter, it's little wonder many hid in prayerful disillusion. For two young Irish boys, something loomed closer. Their lives encompassed their town, their family and their friendship. The first is Joe Purcell (Alan Boyle) a typical Irish boy out to enjoy his youth. The second is his best and closest friend named Francis Brady (Eamonn Owens) who becomes the unlikely hero in the movie, "The Butcher Boy." To Joe, friendship is a temporary bond which enhances life with laughter, pranks and boyhood imagination. But to Francis Brady, friendship is permanent and indelible which nothing on the planet, including Atomic fire, can separate. Enter, the boy's Nemesis, the town gossip and constant irritation to their bond. Mrs. Nugent, (Fiona Shaw) sees the boys as lowly delinquents, petty trouble makers, vicious bullies and future criminals. During the escalating conflict, the audience watches as Francis loses many of the people he loves. Eventually, Mrs. Nugent causes him to lose his best friend. Vengefully, Francis marks her for ultimate punishment. Audiences must decided the boy's reason for his erratic behavior. Was it his drunken father's (Stephen Rea) physical abuse, his mother's suicidal tendencies, incarceration at reform school, becoming a victim of sexual abuse by Father Sullivan (Milo O'Shea), subsequent shock treatments, increasing mental delusions of space aliens or iconic religious figures. It's little wonder Francsis commits the ultimate act of revenge. This is an honest, straight forward movie, which depicts the inner workings of a fragile but psychotic boy in crises. Many people allow maturity to transform them into adults, but some refuse, paying the inevitable price for doing so. ****
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Black Comedy Chronicles a Boy's Descent into Psychosis
Added 11/13/2008
I had no idea what I was getting into when I watched this. Heartbreaking, darkly comic, but undeniably realistic, this film shows a fairly resourceful preteen boy's coping skills cruelly overcome by his family's misery and his best friend's abandonment. Francie's desperate fantasies that his friend Joe still cares about him, and his quickly-masked moments of devastation when those fantasies are crushed, are beautifully acted by young Eamonn Owens (and beautifully directed by Neil Jordan). Although the climax is shocking, the plot points leading up to it require no suspension of disbelief. The humor that pervades both the narration and the young Francie character makes you chuckle even as your heart aches. A unique and brilliantly-done film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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