MOVIE: THE BOYS ARE BACK
Director Scott Hicks of Shine fame returns to his native South Australia to deliver a ponderous, funny and deeply moving exploration of fatherhood. Based on Simon Carr’s acclaimed memoir, it is a story of Joe (Clive Owen), a wise-cracking, jet-setting English sports journalist whose life is turned on its head when wife Katy (Laura Fraser) dies suddenly of cancer. Left with Artie (Nicolas McAnulty), a six year old son he hardly knows, Joe’s fumbling attempts at single parenthood are further complicated when his teenage son Harry (George MacKay) arrives from England, yearning for the father who abandoned him. A slow-burning drama heightened by the rugged, idyllic beauty of the countryside, it is a requiem to grief, a cry for redemption and an ode to life. (MG)
