The Boys Are Back

Review by Anthony Morris

When his Australian wife dies, UK sports journalist Joe Warr (Clive Owen) finds himself raising their noisy, energetic preteen son on his own in the South Australian countryside.

Torn up by grief and with next to no idea about how to handle a child, Joe soon decides that the best rulebook is no rulebook.

Fun is in, chores and tidiness are out, and while it might appal those who believe in structure and safety – that is, women – for these two juvenile males it seems to be working out fine.

Then Joe's teenage son arrives from the UK with his own contrasting but equally angsty set of problems, and it doesn't take long for it to look like three might just be a crowd.

On his good days director Scott Hicks (Shine) has a knack for turning trite feel-good stories into something real and powerful, and with Simon Carr's memoir he's created a moving salute to fatherhood that doesn't strike a false note.

While Hicks does an excellent job with the film's look (the South Australian countryside does him a lot of favours here) and feel and both the boys give thoroughly believable performances, it's Owen's career-best performance that makes this film really special.

Vulnerable, heartfelt and utterly real in every scene, it a massive contrast to the action hero roles he's been playing recently, and it deserves to earn him awards by the bucketload.

4 out of 5

The Boys Are Back
Australian release: 12th November, 2009
Official Site: The Boys Are Back
Cast: Clive Owen, Emma Booth, Erik Thomson, Julia Blake, Chris Haywood
Director: Scott Hicks