THE BUTCHER BOY (65)

Directed by: Neil Jordan

Starring: Eamonn Owens, Stephen Rea, Alan Boyle

The Pitch: A boy in a small Irish village gradually loses his grip on reality, with murderous results.

Theo Sez: A film with a terrific schtick, which it uses maybe once too often - refracting the unhappy trappings of a miserable childhood (poverty, abuse, mother's insanity, parents' crumbling marriage) through its preteen hero's over-vivid imagination. He turns everything into a game - playing man-of-the-house for the local biddies, coming on like a comedy double-team with his best friend (pricelessly played by young Boyle), taking refuge from his parents' quarrels by thinking himself into a different family, running away in the guise of boy hero "Algernon Carruthers" ; and, finally, turning murder into the cathartic climax of every good comic-book and sci-fi thriller. There's other strands to it - the Cold War setting, with its Manichean worldview (encouraging our hero to find a simple scapegoat for all his problems), the Irish culture of tall tales and mythologising as an escape from reality - but it's mostly about the gradual unravelling of a boy's mind, "gradual" being the operative word - and, in a way, the problem : like many such films (HEAVENLY CREATURES is similarly structured), it feels bound to go through every stage of incipient madness, showing our hero being failed successively by friends, family, religion, etc etc. It's no doubt psychologically truthful, but it does get a bit monotonous - I prefer the more dramatic approach of a single Significant Action, as with the analogous situation in HOUSEKEEPING (admittedly not a film about anyone losing their mind), where everything falls apart the moment rebellious Aunt Sylvie has to call a policeman "sir". This never attempts that film's haunting, ethereal quality - it's too raucous, too snarky and irreverent, and perhaps too emphatic for much resonance : the climax feels like overkill, spelling out what's already clear. Intelligent and original, yes ; rich and unforgettable, not quite.