Boy A

Originally made for TV and then wisely picked up by The Brothers Weinstein for a wider cinema release in the US, Boy A is a superlative piece of film-making, based on the book written by Jonathan Trigell.

Eric Wilson is a child criminal, incarcerated for abetting Philip Craig, a similarly-aged boy (who has been raped by his brother) to murder the schoolgirl Angela Milton several years previous to where the film opens. Eric has adopted the name Jack Burridge and, with his mentor Terry (an excellent Peter Mullan), Jack is attempted to be rehabilitated back into society.

There are obvious similarities with the Jamie Bulger case and the film treads around this issue delicately. The minutiae of Jack's life and the story he has to remember in order to avoid detection are painstakingly and economically created with a palpable sense of fear given over to the paranoia involved for those that know and the levels they have to go in order to shield those that don't. Andrew Garfield is commendable in underplaying many of the situations and only one scene (where he is left alone in a nightclub having unknowingly been given an ecstasy tablet) rings false.

As Jack begins to rehabilitate there is an ominous knowledge that the truth will ultimately come out, and when it does so it comes about in a believable way, with the love of a father being misplaced to the heartache of an absent son. One could question whether Terry's role would be trusted to a man with seemingly no support from a larger community of social workers and whether such a high profile case would be handed to a lone confidant, but these are minor quibbles and the performances and excellent direction from Crowley make this essential viewing.



Released on DVD on 8th February 2010 by Optimum Home Entertainment.

Written by Simon Cole.