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Poor Boy's Game
R1 - America - Think Film Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (30th March 2008). |
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The Film
 In 1997, Donnie Rose (Rossif Sutherland) was a violent and troubled white guy from Halifax who assaulted an autistic black kid and left him for dead. After ten years behind bars (time spent boxing, assaulting other inmates, and sodomizing his effeminate black cellmate), Donnie is coming home. Danny Glover plays a gentle dockworker named George, and is also the father of the assaulted boy. He is none to happy about his son's unapologetically racist assailant coming back into society. At Donnie's coming home party, Glover shows up with a gun, but he doesn't have courage to use it. Still, he and his family want revenge. Turns out that there is a famous boxer named Ossie (Flex Alexander) who happens to be from Halifax, and who happens to be black, and who happens to go to George's church. Being a devout Christian, Ossie does the right thing, which is to offer Donnie $20,000 to fight him, with the idea being that Donnie would receive a sound ass-whopping at best, but would die if all went as Ossie planned. Somehow this would vindicate his crime, because ten years behind bars was apparently not punishment enough. Donnie has apparently gotten over being a racist (after all he was shagging a black guy in prison), but everyone he knows is a bit racist (against blacks) and all of the people in the black community seem just as racist (against whites). In short, they're all on the lower end of the working-class spectrum, and they ought to perhaps be finding ways to help each other out of their impoverished condition, rather than going out of their way to be divisive...But that is too easy, and of course there is no drama there. So it becomes black versus white in the boxing ring, as remorse (Donnie) and revenge (Ossie, on behalf of everyone else) come head to head. The twist comes in that George's character really is a good Christian (unlike Ossie and the rest of the community), and he wants to end the cycle of violence. He hooks Donnie up with a good trainer so that at least Donnie might survive the beating that Ossie is going to dish out. Meanwhile, Donnie's brother has a wife and kid whom he beats up, so Donnie remembers that he likes sleeping with women and does so. The message here seems to be that black people are vengeful hypocrites and that white people are ignorant and violent, except for George and the reformed Donnie. When George becomes Donnie's boxing trainer, all reasonable suspension of disbelief falls apart, and what started off as a promising look at racism crumbles under its own attempts at weightiness. During the big climactic fight scene, a painfully mawkish event occurs that further undermines what could have otherwise been a taught and well-crafted drama. All of the leads here are good: Glover is as dependable as always, Sutherland has some real presence as Donnie, and Laura Regan is appealing as Donnie's sister-in-law and love interest. The camerawork by Luc Montpellier is occasionally nice, but it is the production design by William Fleming casting by Wendy O'Brien, and costumes by Jeanie Kimber that is truly sell the film; the supporting cast and their environment really capture the and squalor of this economically depressed city. The weak link here is in the music of Byron Wong, which seems to consist entirely of atmospheric piano tinkling.
Video
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Running time is 1:44:10, divided into 16 chapters. The transfer shows occasional grain in darker indoor scenes, and very occasional specks of dust, but is clean and presentable overall. I spotted a touch of edge enhancement but this too was very minor. The disc nicely showcases Montpellier's work.
Audio
"Poor Boy's Game" is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as English Dolby 2.0 stereo with subtitles in English or Spanish. Dialogue is usually intelligible, but does occasionally get buried during some of the busier scenes. As stated above, I didn't care for the musical score, but at least it never gets in the way. Ambient sound effects, particularly in the crowd scenes and scenes near the water or on the docks, are used tastefully in the surrounds.
Extras
Think Film have included only a small handful of extras that include a music video, a photo gallery, the theatrical trailer plus a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. The extras kick off with "Africville" running 3 minutes 47 seconds, a music video by Black Union featuring Maestro. This is followed by a photo gallery reel set to music which runs for 2 minutes 40 seconds. Next is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 19 seconds. The only other special feature is a series of bonus trailers in a gallery, they include: - "The Air I Breathe" which runs for 2 minutes 20 seconds. - "Wardance" which runs for 2 minutes 29 seconds. - "Bordertown" which runs for 2 minutes 13 seconds. - "Gangsta Rap: A Glockumentary" which runs for 1 minute 54 seconds.
Overall
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