The Boys Are Back (2009/Miramax DVD)
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C+
Director Scott Hicks (Shine)
returns with an interesting drama that almost becomes something interesting
before falling into melodramatic traps as Clive Owen plays a successful
sportswriter with everything until his wife dies in The Boys Are Back (2009), which gives Owen a chance to show his
acting outside of action genre work and he is good, but the film is everything
we’ve seen before.
With his wife gone, he does what he can to help his two
sons out, but even being based n real life events cannot make this more than a
formula film with some degree of heart.
Allan Corbit’s screenplay adaptation of the Simon Carr book is
competent, but could the book be as ultimately formulaic as the film? What we get is not too long at 104 minutes,
but maybe the wrong parts of the book were excised so it could be a film and if
so, that was a mistake. I knew Owen
could act from other previous work, so his often intense and real efforts here
do not surprise me, but he cannot overcome the final result and I was
disappointed.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image looks very good
throughout with sharpness and detail (even with some stylizing) we do into see enough
on major new release DVDs, but the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is dialogue-based with
the surrounds not engaged enough, though I wonder if a lossless mix would sound
better. Extras include a on the set
featurette A Father & Two Sons
and The Boys Are Back: A Photographic
Journey with optional Hicks commentary.
- Nicholas Sheffo
