| Movie of the Day - 1/30/2007 |
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The Butcher Boy
Neil Jordan is one of my favorite directors. Despite whether his latest film is horror or not, I will always watch it whether I know anything about it or not. His genre entries have varied between average (In Dreams) to fantastic (The Company of Wolves and Interview with the Vampire) to a true classic as is the case with The Butcher Boy. Despite this, he is perhaps more well known for his non-horror entries with films like The Crying Game and The End of the Affair. He's been away from the genre for awhile and I hold out hopes that he will return soon.
The Butcher Boy was adapted by the novel from Irish author Patrick McCabe (Jordan's latest film Breakfast on Pluto is also based on a McCabe novel) and for some baffling reason has been thus far unavailable on DVD. It also is one of the major reasons that I have kept trusty old VHS machine around, though my copy is growing a little worn. Fortunately, the film will finally be hitting the DVD market in a couple weeks, so a great wrong can be corrected.
The film follows a young boy named Francie Brady. His life is fairly complicated. His mother suffers from mental problems, his father is an abusive alcoholic, his best friend is going to be shipped off to boarding school, a local woman constantly berates him and his parents and everyone keeps talking about the end of the world courtesy of nuclear annihilation. Oh, and the Virgin Mary (played by Sinead O'Connor) keeps visiting him. As his world starts to unravel and people start to leave him, Francie starts to unravel himself. At first, he does nasty little things like petty vandalism but as he is further pushed to the brink, he puts to use the skills he has learned from his job of butchering pigs.
Fairly heavy content no? Well, actually The Butcher Boy is more of a comedy than anything. A really dark comedy that is. The film is a very dark look into the mind of a young boy who is slowly losing his mind. Basically it takes childhood fears and intertwines them with his childhood fantasies to start unraveling his reality as he sinks further and further into his psychosis. Neil Jordan puts the viewers firmly in Francie's mind and we go along with him for the ride.
I am firmly convinced that Jordan can bring the best out of any child actor. Just as Kirsten Dunst stole the show in Interview with the Vampire, Eamonn Owens is absolutely fantastic in the lead role of Francie. He has enough charm and character that it is impossible to dislike this completely dysfunctional young lad. Jordan regular Stephen Rea gives his usual excellent performance as the father and leaves you wondering why he doesn't appear in more films. But Owens is definitely the star of the show and plays Francie with such venom and vigor that you are never quite sure what the boy will do next and wince at the possibilities.
Any movie that can create the “Not a bad bastard anymore award” has got my vote. In truth, I have watched The Butcher Boy countless times and it still captivates and entertains me completely. While Jordan's other films already raised Neil Jordan high up on my respected directors pedestal, The Butcher Boy has guaranteed that he will never slip no matter where he goes from here. After all, pretty soon I will have the film on DVD and I will be able to test whether it is possible to wear a DVD down.
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January 30, 2007, 3:01 pm |
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