The Boys Are Back DVD
The Boys Are Back stars Clive Owen as a father who is suddenly a single parent coping with a career that takes him away from his son and the emotional reunion with his first son from a previous marriage.
Film making 22/25
Video 20/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 10/25
Total 72/100
Clive Owen plays Joe Warr, a top sports writer from England who has made a new home and new start in Australia with his second wife Katy. When Katy dies of cancer Joe and his son Artie come to terms with life using a simple rule, Just Say Yes.
Joe decides after some time to Just Say Yes to everything and to further complicate what seems a simple rule that chores are also not a necessity to family life. Joe and Artie try to follow this simple rule but Joe’s ex wife drops a bombshell in sending Joe’s son from his first marriage to live with him during a school break.
Harry played by MacKay is an older version of Joe down to his love of soccer and partial hatred of the boarding school Joe went to as a young man and Harry now attends. Harry at first hates his father and does not like the situation at home but in the end decides to live with him and quite the boarding school.
The emotional and predictable event that changes things for the better eventually is when Joe has tried to cover the Tennis event in Australia from his living room and finds out his boss is going for the final rounds. Joe leaves the boys to fend for themselves to the predictable outcome of some young adults from up the beach who find out the boys are home alone and storm the house for a party.
Harry and Artie are extremely upset and end up calling Joe’s parents for help when they can’t reach Joe who ends up leaving early from the Tennis tournament to rush to the boys side. Joe realizes his mistake and works to get Harry’s confidence back but Harry is upset and only wants to go back to school and forget about his father.
Artie and Joe go to England to try and talk with Harry but Harry at first refuses and eventually does talk with him to tell him he no longer trusts him enough to live with him. As Joe and Artie head back to Australia Harry meets them for the trip back as he decided that he would prefer to live with his father and half brother.
Clive Owen plays a great role and the film really has all the makings of a well done family drama with a great story by Simon Carr. The film is directed by Scott Hicks for a great and emotional appeal that really works well as a film to tug on the heart strings.
You can definitely see the futility of some of the father’s decisions but you can also really believe he would try these tactics to get along. It’s really fun to see as he tries to juggle single life with a young son and a career that takes him away from home often and for long stretches.
The introduction of a single mom from the school where he takes Artie just screams future Mrs. Joe Warr but they draw this out to the predictable conclusion of her helping the family until everyone accepts her. The film is based on real events but I am sure they juggled things until it made for good cinema but it still worked well for a good family film that is entertaining.
The Boys Are Back is a great film and well worth watching for a good family drama with some really heartfelt acting from veteran Clive Owen and George MacKay. The film looks great with wonderful scenic views of Australia and the DVD version is great for both video and audio.
The video looks very good even in standard definition with no real problems technically speaking and the director did a great job of utilizing the scenic Australia they filmed in. The audio is also well done in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with Spanish language track and subtitles for a decent audio feature set.
Audio is well done with clear voices and some good background music and effects for an overall well made film for both audio and video. The added content for bonus features is a little short with a picture slideshow making of feature that is not all that great with commentary by director Scott Hicks during the slideshow.
You also have A Father and Two Sons feature by Simon Carr and his two sons who wrote the book the film is based on as they appear on set during the filming. The bonus content is alright but not much for additional content on the DVD version.
The Boys Are Back is a great film and well worth owning for a great emotional tale of a father thrown into single parenthood with a bit of a different twist to the family drama.