This Boy's Life
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Movie Reviews of This Boy's Life
Movie Review: movies at their best
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a Great Movie. I had seen it and loved it on TV and just had to have it for my DVD collection.Movie Review: Stark but hopeful
Summary: 4 Stars
I just happened to catch this film on HBO one evening and was stunned at how good it turned out to be. While I appreciate some of the remarks of earlier reviewers, I don't believe that films and books should be evaluated against the same criteria, so I am more forgiving of the bedroom scene in the film. For me, the bedroom scene between Dwight and Toby's mother serves a purpose -- to show just how much of a crude, repressed guy Dwight really is, not to mention calculating, since his bedroom behavior is about 180 degrees away from the uber-gentleman he purported to be when he was courting the mother.
In any case, the main interest of the film for me lies in the role of Toby as played by DiCaprio. I was never much impressed with him in Titantic and his other hits. He was adequate, but in my view much overrated. Here, however, his talent is much clearer to me, especially in the way he convinces me to believe that Toby is actually a good person, despite his behavior.
But the main strength of the film is Tobias Wolff's story line. For much of the film, there is an inexorable feeling of Toby marching to his ultimate doom, not unlike one of those novels of the Victorians like Thomas Hardy. There is a sense that, no matter what he ever does, Toby is destined to become a desperate adult, trapped in Concrete and probably slowly drinking himself to death after his shift is over at the local factory. The fact that Toby gets himself out of Concrete and away from his step-father, not to mention also saves his mother, is deeply hopeful. Even though the notes at the end of the film say that he was eventually expelled from the Hill School, it's clear that he went on to make something quite impressive of himself, and that he did so in spite of all of the nasty stuff that went on during his formative years.
This makes me want to recommend the film to all teens, especially boys, who feel helpless and trapped right now, as well as to the adults who care for them. Wolff's story says that no matter how difficult our circumstances, and no matter how many blunders our caregivers make, each individual still has the opportunity to shape his/her life. We are not destined for anything that we don't want for ourselves, provided we are willing to push back and fight for ourselves.
Finally, as a foster parent I found this film hopeful because it shows me that well-meaning adults like Toby's mother (and me!) may make mistakes, but that a child's failure is not completely determined by our decisions. And that's a degree of comfort for those of us who are trying hard and worry about whether we're doing the right thing.
Movie Review: This Boy's life
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a true story about Tobias Wolffe. He is a boy who's mother is raising him alone, and he spends most of his days with his buddies, and getting into trouble while she's at work. His mother doesn't know what else to do with him, so she marries a man, whom she feels would be a good example to him. This is when she decides to send poor Tobias to stay with her new boyfriend to see if he can straighten him out (prior to their marriage). He is very strict, and down right mean to Tobias, but is always nice his mother. Finally, when Tobias' mother gets married to this man, he becomes more violent, and controlling to them both. Tobias still skips school to hang out with his buddies, and gets into trouble. Now Tobias decides after a few years of being tortured by his step-father, with beatings, and mind controlling, that he wants to go to a boarding school college, and his step-father tries to dicourage him, because he's jealous that he might succeed in life, and not be controlled by him anymore. They get into a mondo arguement, and it all comes to a head in the end. I won't tell you the rest. You have to see it yourself. Just a fair warning, this movie is good, but has a lot of cursing, and a violent sex scene between Tobias' mother and step-father on their wedding night, not appropriate for children under 14.Movie Review: Good Acting
Summary: 4 Stars
I've read some of Wolff's books. He is a descent writer and has a talent for biography. His experiences in Vietnam as a soldier are well documented. As a college professor he is an outspoken Liberal. My theory, aside from his mother's interest in Democratic politics: the unfortunate stepfather and the new Dad's insane disciplinary mindlessness warped Wolff's perception of Red State citizens and their Conservatism. Ah, the making's of a Liberal.
I enjoyed the film and marvel as everyone else at the childhood acting skills of Leonardo DiCaprio. He is the smart 1950's boy gone crazy at the chafe of a hateful father. His mother has exhausted all possibilities, agreeing to marry the manly, ex-Navy guy with a house, some relatively mild children, and a business. It should have worked out, but De Niro plays the obsessive-compulsive small burg narcissist to a menacing crescendo.
I don't live far from The Hill School, which is located in Pottstown, PA, and frankly, driving past the walled campus, I have never seen one preppy rich kid walking the streets of an old steel town. No wonder the real Tobias got expelled; it's a small world behind those gates.
There's good tension all the way through this film and I rooted for Tobias. You won't be disappointed.
Movie Review: Memorable, But Difficult To Watch
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a very haunting, sometimes very difficult story to watch unfold on screen. When it came out, I had never heard of Leonardo DiCaprio, but I wasn't alone as this was only his second or third time on screen. Anyway, he certainly gave a powerful performance and served notice he was going to be a "big name" actor.
Basically, it's about teenage kid and his mom trying to survive the mean father-husband of the family in a small town during the 1950s. Robert De Niro plays the dad and Ellen Barkin, the mom.
Leo plays "Tobias Wolffe;" De Niro, "Dwight Hansen" and Barkin, "Caroline Hansen." She had remarried Hansen after having "Toby" earlier, hence the surname "Wolffe."
What made this story tough for me was that, to be honest, neither father nor son were nice guys, although De Niro's character was far worse. The struggles - and that's putting it tactfully - between father and son were really nasty. Yet, as unpleasant at is, the story is memorable and it haunted me for several days, especially since it is "based" on a true story. How much of this was true, I can't say, but it is a dramatic story you will not dismiss.