This Boy's Life (2003, DVD)

The 1993 film This Boy's Life is based on the memoirs of Syracuse University Professor Tobias Wolff, chronicling the tumultuous years of his adolescence. It is a bittersweet coming of age story, with a lot more bitterness than sweetness, set against the backdrop of the nostalgic innocent age of the late 1950's. The film opens with voiceovers of the adult Tobias describing his nomadic early adolescence as his mercurial mother (Ellen Barkin) moves him from state to state looking for a better life, leaving behind a series of abusive relationships with men. The two land in Seattle, where Tobias.

Ach! D'ya know, I'm really torn about this movie, I can't decide if I love it with everything I have, or I absolutely loathe the fact it exists. On the surface of things I should love it, it boasts a healthy cast and the coming-of-age thing is always a hit, but there's something, something vaguely loathsome about it. Maybe it's because the book it's based on, the autobiographical effort by University Professor Tobias Wolff, is so much better. Or maybe it's because I've seen it too many times, which is obviously my own stupid fault. At any rate, maybe I'll have a clearer picture after I've put.

Set in the 1950's which are remembered so fondly as the days of "Father Knows Best", this movie did not do well at the box office nor did it receive Oscar recognition. I believe its low box office figures were due to a poor title and very little promotion. As for the Academy Awards, who can tell. It is not a happy story. Ellen Barkin plays Caroline, a woman who travels around the U.S. making the same mistake repeatedly: she falls for men who are abusive to her and to her son. Her son is Toby and is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. We first see the duo living with and then escaping a loser who...

I amazed when I hear people say: "Parents weren't as abusive back in the 1950's" or "Kids back in the 1950's weren't as much as punks as the ones today". Unfortunately, the 'good days' were not always as good as we might think. Human behavior is human behavior, plain and simple. This movie is from a book (an autobigraphy) called "This Boy's Life" by a professor somewhere in New York, by the name of Tobais Wolfe. It is inspirational story showing that one has to be absolutely mad as hell to get out of the rut they are in. I believe this point was clearly made. The movie starts with Ellen...