It has the same understanding of male emotions as a Nick Hornby bestseller and could be that rare warmhearted weepie with an appeal that spans the genders and generations.
Comment
10/14/09
The Boys Are Back (2009)
72
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:81
Fresh:58
Rotten:23
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Great performances by Clive Owen and The Boys save this melodrama from entering into the sappy territory it might have in less competent hands.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Sep 25, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $783,013
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, THE BOYS ARE BACK is a deeply moving, wryly confessional tale of fatherhood, that intimately evokes both the fragility and wonders of family life. It follows a witty,... [More]
Starring: Clive Owen, Laura Fraser, Nicholas Macanulty, Julia Blake
Director: Scott Hicks
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Reviews for The Boys Are Back
Honesty defines the performances. The happiest possible ending here and in real life is that people keep going forward no matter how hard it hurts.
09/27/09
It's the two boys, young George Mackay and younger Nicholas McAnulty who walk away with the acting honours in astonishingly mature and controlled performances
11/05/09
An affecting blend of warm comedy and high pathos, The Boys Are Back brings an unusual all-male perspective to its otherwise familiar themes of domesticity, death and dysfunction.
10/30/09
A somewhat unfocused and convoluted drama that's buoyed by beautiful scenery and, most effectively, by Clive Owen's well-nuanced, charismatic and endearing performance.
09/29/09
The Boys Are Back is a bit like the parenting it portrays -- at times there is pain, mistakes will be made, but if you can get beyond that, there is pleasure to be found.
09/25/09
If The Boys Are Back takes some emotional shortcuts, it still manages to convey some of the more mystifying aspects of parenthood.
10/14/09
Director Hicks keeps the cliches under control in this treacly tale of a man struggling to be a single father.
10/09/09
Joe says in a voice-over that "life is a journey to be traveled no matter how bad the road." And The Boys Are Back is a highly satisfying ride.
10/31/09
It manages to veer from touching to humorous (Warr has some rather unconventional parenting techniques) without being overly mawkish, and the sumptuous cinematography by Greig Fraser is perhaps the best commercial ever for South Australia.
10/09/09
At first, the Australian Boys seems to be one of those annoying, isn't-it-noble-how-the-single-dad-keeps-it-together movies, but it's more interesting than that.
10/09/09
The content of Allan Cubitt's script, based on Simon Carr's memoir, is meaty and straightforward, which gives it an unexpected power.
09/23/09
Top CriticThis lovely and emotionally resonant film about a family shattered by grief deserves better than a forgettably glib title that conjures up images of beer brawls or gangster affiliations.
09/25/09
Has there been a better film about single fatherhood than The Boys Are Back? None that I recall.
10/08/09
Hicks' rambling pacing and Cubitt's routine approach to the story prevent 'The Boys Are Back' from reaching its potential.
10/09/09
Expert tearjerker with a phenomenal performance from Owen, which will be particularly affecting for parents.
11/11/09
The boys are great, and the relationship between brothers who have been thrown together because they share the same absentee father is the film's truest, sweetest element.
10/08/09
A head-turning performance by Clive Owen and a similar breakthrough from Emma Booth ... an incredibly powerful and moving film.
09/15/09
What you can't see with your mind's eye, however, are the performances, which save the movie from a treacly inevitability.
09/25/09
After a decade of weak films, Hicks has made his strongest work since Shine, an intimate and emotional father-son melodrama that while conventional and predictable benefits from Clive Owen's presence in a part that updates Hoffman's in Kramer Vs. Kramer.
09/16/09
Latest News for The Boys Are Back
November 09, 2009:
Scott Hicks Talks The Boys Are Back
RT talks to director Scott Hicks as his latest film, 'The Boys Are Back', starring Clive Owen, opens in Australian cinemas. More...
September 24, 2009:
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