Boy

Synopsis: Boy (James Rolleston) is an 11-year old Maori lad living with his brother, Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu), his Grandma and several abandoned cousins on the rural east cost of New Zealand in 1984. Boy adores Michael Jackson and pines for his Dad, Alamein (Taika Waititi), who has been doing time in jail. Rocky meantime hangs around the cemetery communing with his dead mother and practising what he believes are his magic powers. When Alamein gets out of jail and turns up at Boy’s home with his gang of two, the Crazy Horses, Boy suddenly discovers what it means to have a father – to desperately try to please him, emulate him and to reconcile fantasy with reality.

Boy won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year and one can surely see why. It is a charming, modest, whimsical film with lashings of heart, some great acting and a pertinent message about growing up and realising one’s heroes are not always what they seem.

Taika Waititi is a real talent, writing, directing and starring in this film as he also did in 2007's Eagle vs Shark as well as episodes of the off-beat, at times hilarious TV show Flight of the Conchords. Here he goes to his Maori roots to deliver a film that really gives an insight into a family-centric, fiercely loyal and yet potentially negative sector of New Zealand society. Negative in that Boy comes from a family where his potential may never be discovered, especially if he follows in Dad’s footsteps. The father he dreams about and describes to others as a war hero, a Samurai, a master wood carver, and champion rugby player, is soon seen as anything but. Alamein turns up in a loud car with two total drop-kicks as friends, all purporting to be members of some outlaw gang. Alamein impresses the kids when he stands up to Boy’s bullies but soon reveals himself for what he really is: an immature man-child – a dope smoking, self-delusional fool, who gets his kids working like navvies digging up a field where he has hidden some stolen money prior to his jail term. He is at times charming and funny but is also in ways like a gentler version of the negative types seen in Once Were Warriors – the sort of role model Boy definitely should not emulate.

Rolleston as Boy is marvellous. He brings a level of charisma and maturity to the role that makes his character a delight from beginning to end of the film. Here is a character with compassion unusual for a child yet we believe it implicitly. His level of responsibility for his small cousins when his Nan goes away, along with his dedication to his pet goat, Leaf, and his wonderfully creative imagination are all engaging qualities in this character, and yet we also recognise the torn child who must finally decide between his Dad as imagined ideal or as reality. Eketone Whitu is equally captivating as the young brother who believes he was responsible for his mother’s death. Rocky’s fantasies of his “powers” are nicely presented as cartoon representations, in a child’s drawing style, on the screen. There are also a number of other peripheral but fascinating characters – Chardonnay, the girl after whom Boy lusts, and an old fat homeless guy known as Weirdo with whom Rocky develops an odd rapport. And of course Leaf the goat, in some ways pivotal to the plot.

Boy gives us plenty of funny lines, lots of great scenes played for laughter and emotion and yet a truthfulness and sensitivity shines through. Yet again New Zealand film-makers prove they are great at giving us ‘small’ films that are large on heart and spirit.

 

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