THE BOYS ARE BACK
December 7, 2009 Australia/UK, Rated PG

Director: Scott Hicks Cast: Clive Owen, Emma Booth, Laura Fraser, George MacKay, Nicholas McAnulty Run Time: TBD Country: Australia/United Kingdom Year: 2009 Language: English

The Boys Are Back marks the triumphant return of director Scott Hicks following his Academy Award®-winning film Shine. Inspired by a true story and based on the novel by Simon Carr, The Boys Are Back stars Clive Owen (Children of Men, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) as Joe Warr, a British sports reporter living in Australia who becomes a single parent under tragic circumstances.

After his wife succumbs to cancer, Joe is suddenly saddled with the responsibility of raising two young sons from different marriages: Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) and Harry (George MacKay). Both of the boys desperately need their father. Artie struggles to cope with the loss of his mother, while Harry, who’s visiting from England, yearns to understand why his dad left him and his mom in London. Determined to reunite his family, Joe devises a Peter Pan-like strategy of no rules whatsoever, only to find he has a lot to learn about fatherhood and about himself.

Poignant and humorous, The Boys Are Back is a gentle and smartly played story enlivened by drama and tremendous acting. The multi-talented, charismatic and moody Clive Owen shines as Joe, his performance complemented by Hicks’s toned-down direction that gets in close to the actors and conveys their unspoken feelings without becoming bogged down in sentiment. Heart-rending and truly emotional, The Boys Are Back is handled with equal amounts of tenderness and understanding as it explores what it takes to be a parent.

 

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