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This Boy's Life
R2 - United Kingdom - Second Sight Review written by and copyright: Jon Meakin (14th October 2011). |
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The Film
 It’s good to see This Boy’s Life again after all this time. It was always a good film, if not overly remarkable, but now has the added interest of seeing Leonardo Dicaprio in one of his earliest roles. For a long time, I didn’t really rate him as an actor. It might have been Titanic that did that because it was such a high-profile, but simple role. Also, he seemed lost in the shadow of actors like Johnny Depp, who would consistently choose more interesting parts, or even the late River Phoenix, with whom his looks and style bear a resemblance, except Phoenix had such a natural talent. In recent years, Dicaprio has more than proved his worth, especially since Catch Me If You Can. I like how you can see him putting a determination into each of his roles. He’s successfully bridged the movie star/actor divide and being Martin Scorcese’s muse doesn’t hurt either. In 1993 he acted opposite then Scorcese regular Robert De Niro, in the true life story This Boy’s Life, based on the book by Tobias Wolff. With stories like this it’s always hard to assess how much is a balanced account and how much an author is creating a revised. Certainly the story holds no real surprise or insight and from a certain perspective can sometimes feel selfishly weighted to the boy (justifies the title I suppose!). But the difference here is that the partnership of the leads, bolstered by a well-judged and generous performance from De Niro, transcends the adequate writing to find something more genuine. Meanwhile, Michael Caton-Jones could count this as his best film (Basic Instinct 2 is hardly a match!), successfully capturing the time and place with a fantastic soundtrack and wisely allowing the cast to take the reins. The story is simple enough. Toby (Dicaprio) is a teenager struggling as typical teenagers do, and not being helped by his well-meaning mother, Caroline (Ellen Barkin). Toby has a close relationship with her, but she can’t settle, has little money and is lost between relationships (the last being Roy, played by Chris Cooper in a brief role) and jobs. After she fails one more time to make it work and Toby gets into trouble at school again, they land up in Seattle and she meets Dwight (De Niro). Caroline is determined to stay put and considers marriage. Meanwhile Toby is heading further off the rails so Caroline sends him to live with Dwight and his three other children for a while. After a few months, she joins them and marries Dwight. While Toby is on his own with stepfather-to-be, he very quickly finds that the charming Dwight actually tends to be a bully. Toby gets on well the other children (look out for a pre-Buffy Eliza Dushku), but comes to dread the routine with their dad. Things don’t improve when Caroline joins them as she is also victimised to a lesser extent, but has no fight left, believing she really has to settle this time. The awkward relationship is very believable. Dicaprio is excellent as Toby, struggling to keep straight and he’s fairly convincing as a troublemaker, although his boyish looks don’t quite work when he’s playing the slightly older Toby (the story jumps on two years in the last act). He gets good support from groups of friends both when he is younger and especially older (including a young Tobey Maguire). But as we see in his later work, he puts everything into realising the character of young man struggling to keep his wits in the face of some awful abuse with attempts to break the cycle continually frustrated. There are less violent scenes than you might expect, although one late in the film is pretty brutal. Dwight’s meanest tricks are subtle, designed to break Toby’s spirit over a long period of time. De Niro could easily have just played this as a one-note bully and keep it simple, but gives a nuanced performance that suggests Dwight is a much weaker man than he makes out. I don’t know how much of this nuance is related in the book, but maybe Dwight was a settled family man, struggling to deal with a teenager used to running around the country with his mum, while Tobias the author might have a selective memory of his childhood. He addresses his behaviour, but read between the lines and do we find a spoilt kid who just wanted an easy ride and a stepfather who thought a hard-line was acceptable? I don’t want to make excuses for some of the stunts Dwight pulls, it’s just a testament to the cast that I can least see a possibility in their performances and it lifts the film way above average. The last act is an emotional and satisfying conclusion, but overall I wanted the script to tell me more about Caroline (how much was her free spirit nature a factor? And some of her more interesting aspects are glossed over), Dwight’s history and the opinion of his other kids to truly understand the Toby’s perspective. There’s some great scenes with the whole family (watch Toby and Dwight setting off for Scouts, or Caroline doing a puzzle with Dwight’s daughter) and I think more of those would have made for a more colourful film.
Video
This Boy’s Life is quite an old film, relatively speaking, and there has been no restoration. You’ll spot a few marks in the print, but otherwise it’s a good quality transfer, anamorphic 2.35:1. Colour is muted, but suits the period.
Audio
A drama from 1993 would benefit little from a surround remix, so the English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is clear and acceptable. The music is especially well presented and gives the film a memorable identity that it might have otherwise missed. No subtitles have been included.
Extras
None, apart from scene selection. A shame there is no retrospective material.
Overall
No extras, but a budget release make this DVD an easy recommendation. It’s an honest and straightforward drama that lacks any sense of exaggeration and is balanced by an excellent cast. Fun seeing Dicaprio in his younger days and De Niro when he had more range too!
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