The Boys Are Back

Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Simon Carr, the touching The Boys Are Back stars Clive Owen as Australian sportswriter Joe Warr. Joe's world crashes down on him when his wife (Laura Fraser) dies of inoperable cancer, leaving him a single parent with one very young son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty), and another, Harry (George MacKay), a teenager from a previous marriage. The events that follow Joe's loss are largely predictable, yet are well worth seeing on the strength of Owen's performance as an overnight widower and conflicted family man. There is the inevitable competition for his attention between home and the newspaper where he works. There are tensions with his grieving in-laws, whom he needs for support while also having to lay down clear boundaries. There is subtle awareness of other women in the world, now that Joe is single again. Trying to be all things for all people just seems to make everyone upset with Joe, yet he carries on, trying to be positive with the kids but falling on his face regularly.

There is a tidiness to The Boys are Back that undercuts any chance of surprising a viewer. A scene where Joe reads aloud from one of his sports columns, for instance, is gratuitously written into the script just to be sure the audience really knows what he does and why he's famous for it. Director Scott Hicks (Shine) tries to balance emotional truth with a stodgy, art-house quality, sacrificing grit in the process. Things loosen up when the action briefly shifts to England, but for the most part The Boys Are Back is solely memorable for its performances. --Tom Keogh