Product Description

The story of a young ex-con Jack, newly released from serving a prison sentence for a murder he committed as a child.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21195 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-07
• Rating: Unrated
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
An intriguing tragedy held together by a pair of remarkable performances, Boy A takes hold of a viewer in its opening scene and never lets go. Andrew Garfield (The Other Boleyn Girl) plays "Jack Burridge," a name chosen for him by a somewhat mysterious, avuncular fellow called Terry (Peter Mullan). Terry seems to be the only person to have maintained a relationship with Jack during the years the latter was incarcerated for a terrible crime he committed, with another child, as a boy. (Their misdeed is slowly revealed in detail through frequent flashbacks.) This British film, based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell and directed by John Crowley (Intermission), begins with Terry smoothing a path for Jack to re-enter the world with a new identity and fabricated personal history. Taking a delivery job in Manchester, Jack slowly learns about everything he missed while growing up in prison: how to order from a menu, how to be a friend, how to woo a woman. In time, Jack enjoys the esteem of co-workers and love of a compassionate girlfriend, Kelly (Siobhan Finneran). But the more he becomes part of the fabric of his world, the more he risks being exposed as a fraud. A strange, almost alien tension permeates Boy A. A viewer gets crucial information in bits and pieces, and a radical shift in one’s perception of what’s actually going on in the story awaits the audience in the second act. As betrayal and manipulation slowly emerge from behind layers of obfuscation and false assumptions, Boy A takes on an unexpected tone of psychological suspense. Crowley has a way of underscoring a sense of disconnection in seemingly benign scenes with only slight accents, little visual cues that are dreamily exotic but add up to a nightmare. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Living with the Sins of Childhood
BOY A is a film that moves the audience in ways few other films do. Part of this is the subject matter, part the solid drama of the novel by Jonathan Trigell on which Mark O'Rowe based his brilliantly understated screenplay, part the sensitive direction by John Crowley, and in large part is the cast of remarkably fine actors who make this impossibly treacherous story credible.

'Boy A' refers to Eric Wilson (Alfie Owen) who was jailed for a crime with his friend with whom he was associated as a youth. He has been released from prison and under the guidance of his 'parole officer/advisor' Terry (Peter Mullan), the now young adult is renamed Jack Burridge (Andrew Garfield) to protect him from the public who still remember the heinous crime of which he was convicted: Terry warns Jack to tell no one his real identity. Jack is assigned a new family and finds new friends in this strange world outside prison walls, but he is still haunted by the crime that changed his life. How Jack relates to his first female relationship and survives the bigotry of his classmates and city folk and finds a way to hold onto life despite his childhood 'sins' forms the development of this story.

While the entire cast is excellent, Andrew Garfield's performance as the guilt ridden needy Eric/Jack is exemplary. There are many issues this film deals with in addition to the trauma of starting life over after imprisonment, issues that are universal in nature and that probe our psyches for answers that are never easily resolved here. It is a brilliant little film from the UK. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, October 08

very watchable
Don't worry, I won't give a play-by-play of the story. I will say that it is a thoroughly touching and interesting movie that showcases the life of a young man released from prison for a childhood crime. Watching him start over is pretty remarkable. His social awkwardness coupled with his failure to move on from his haunting past, make the lead character vulnerable and relatable. I can't stress enough how watchable and interesting the concept is and how well-acted the parts are. I hate to be cheesy, but the movie will make you think. It's got a lot of dark psychological themes and well-developed characters. Additionally, it's very fast-paced as well as multi-dimensional in that it covers several facets of human emotion and human life. I honestly think that everyone would be able to take something (not necessarily the same thing) from this movie.

A Masterpiece!
An incredible film. Never before have I seen and felt such emotional intimacy committed to film before this. Andrew Garfield has launched himself as an actor worthy of the BAFTA he won for this performance. I can't shake this one from my mind since seeing it in a theatre 3 weeks ago. My DVD arrived yesterday along with the book it is based upon. I need to keep it close.