This Boy’s Life
DIRECTOR: Michael Caton-Jones, SCREENPLAY BY: Robert Getchell, BASED ON: 'This Boy's Life' BY: Tobias Wolff, STARRING: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robet De Niro, Ellen Barkin, RUN TIME: 115 Mins, RELEASE: 1993
In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible.
'This Boy's Life' is based on the memoirs of the same name by American author, Tobias Wolff, which chronicles his troubled adolescence as he travels with his continuously unsettled mother, Caroline, who flees her abusive boyfriend and goes in search of Uranium (of all things), which she hopes will make her rich. Eventually she becomes involved with mechanic, Dwight Hansen, who turns out to be an abusive and controlling disciplinarian. Although the memoirs relive other moments and events from his unconventional childhood, the film adaptation focuses purely on the relationship between him and his pejorative step-dad, Dwight.
Now, over the years I have seen a considerable amount of fact based films that depict strong physical and mental abuse at the hands of a dominant and aggressive family member. Admittedly, some of them have been quite difficult to watch and usually end up infuriating me at the terrible suffering and fear that some families find themselves unfortunately living in. To that end, 'This Boy's Life is considerably tame. By that statement I no way mean to belittle what Wolff was subjected to as a child, but merely point out that what we have with this film is a great coming-of-age drama. Arguably one of the best that I have seen.
Not only is this story brilliantly adapted onto the big screen, but it also boasts a spectacular cast. This is one of my favourite DiCaprio roles alongside 'The Basketball Diaries' (1995) and 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?' (1993). To be honest, I think that Leonardo DiCaprio was no finer an actor than when he was in his younger days and I still find it shocking to this day that the Academy have never so far awarded him with the Oscar (s) that he deserves so much. It's about time that he was recognized for his amazing talent. He portrays the cocksure and mischievous innocence of the 1950s displaced teenager with typical DiCaprio charm and excellence, whilst effortlessly and convincingly shifting between the deeper and troubled emotions when the character require it.
DiCaprio's role is complimented magnificently by Robert DeNiro as the bastard step-dad Dwight. DeNiro's single style of trademark acting is a a perfect fit for the obnoxious character he portrays. There are some great moments of menace and intensity from Dwight which DeNiro is a well practised master at. However, those moments become less intimidating as you start to realize what a big sulky baby Dwight was. He really is a loathsome person that resorts to sly and pathetic bully-boy tactics when he doesn't get his own way and instead of fearing his character, you just end up thinking what a pathetically petty twat he is; a preaching, self-worshipping bullshitter that stomps, shouts, belittles and mopes at every given opportunity who spends his time picking on a child to secure his dominance and lust for forced respect. It would be slightly comical if it weren't for the fact that this was an actual person that really did these things. DeNiro is first class. Ellen Barkin also puts in a wonderful performance as Tobias' flaky mother Caroline, whose choices in partners is consistently questionable, to say the least.
Overall 'This Boy's Life' is a great film. It moves along at a steady pace and never escalates to anything truly horrifying and uncomfortable. It's simply a wonderfully told story of a young man's troubled youth that boasts a remarkable cast and some great direction from Michael Caton-Jones. There is also a nice supporting cast from some much younger but familiar faces the likes of Eliza Dushku, Carla Gugino, Toby Maguire, Sean Murray and Jonah Blechman.