Father knows worst

Clive Owen marshals a free range household
in the Aussie drama The Boys Are Back

DEVIL-MAY-CARE DAD: Clive Owen

by MARK SLUTSKY

You don’t see movies like The Boys Are Back too often any more. An almost entirely male-driven family drama, it’s the kind of mid-budget, mid-brow movie, made without a discernible demographic in mind, that Hollywood seems to have largely abandoned. It’s stuck in my head since I saw it at a film festival pre-screening nearly a month ago, even though I didn’t feel strongly about it either way at the time.

Directed by Scott Hicks (Shine) and based on an autobiographical book by Simon Carr, The Boys Are Back stars Clive Owen as Joe Warr, a U.K.-born sportswriter living in Australia with his second wife Katy (Laura Fraser) and son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). When she develops an aggressive cancer and dies, the bereaved dad finds himself with a household and young son to look after—and little idea of what to actually do.

Further complicating things, his son from his first marriage, Harry (George MacKay), shows up and throws the house into turmoil. Realizing he’ll never fully control the madness, our confused widower quickly adopts a “free range parenting” strategy, or, as he puts it: “Just Say Yes.” Naturally, this leads to some complications, especially when he’s forced to leave town for work for a few days and leaves the kids on their own.

The film’s story is a little forced (the home alone thing isn’t quite strong enough to be a real climax), but the smaller elements of the drama here work nicely. Owen brings his usual brooding reserve to the part, and it fits the role of a man in mourning well—and his scenes with his late wife, as she fights the illness, are really quite moving.

Hicks and cinematographer Greig Fraser give the film a ’70s album cover look that, combined with the Sigur Rós score, give The Boys Are Back an unexpected dreaminess. The beautiful light and colours of Australia, its beaches and landscapes, are gorgeous, and the movie almost works as an intense little travelogue. A surprising film that stuck with me, and might do with you too.

THE BOYS ARE BACK
OPENS THIS FRIDAY, OCT. 2