This Boys Life Review

The name Leonardo DiCaprio became synonymous with ‘heart-throb’ almost immediately when Titanic hit the bigscreen in 1997. It was several years before he regained recognition for his acting skills and, with the rerelease of This Boy’s Life, audiences have the chance to see whether his role in Titanic was won solely on looks, or whether he deserves credit for his pre-Titanic career.

The screen adaptation of American writer Tobias Wolff’s memoirs features some other familiar faces as well as a freshfaced DiCaprio as the main character. Robert DeNiro plays the writer’s stepfather, and you can also spot TV favourite Eliza Dushku in a supporting role as well as an (even more) boyish Tobey Maguire.

It’s sad to acknowledge that the plot – in which Wolff’s dreamy mother meets a man who, on the surface, is a respectable and supportive partner but who in reality is a dominant and abusive figure – will strike a chord with many a modern family. There is no sense of escapism within this film, but this realism lends a sense of credibility to the portrayal of Wolff’s experiences and an ease in connecting and empathising with the characters.

The instability of Wolff’s upbringing makes his difficult, rebellious nature understandable – there is no sense of precocity or malice in his behaviour. While his mother’s continous uprooting of her children is perhaps less relatable, her despair and anxiety surrounding her son’s behaviour as a single mother demonstrates her love for him despite the upheavals she has exposed him to at times; though her decision to send him to live with her new beau Dwight seems rather ill-advised from the outset, she is at her wit’s end, so it’s forgivable if not understandable as a viewer.

Caton-Jones pitches us convincingly into 1950s America with careful attention paid to costume (vintage shoppers will envy DiCaprio’s knitted sweater collection!) and interiors (there are some eye-wateringly vivid wallpaper and curtain patterns). The tension between Toby and Dwight is gripping and unnerving without being gratuitously graphic or over the top – the merciless kitchen attack which sees Toby, pushed to breaking point, lunge at DeNiro is very uncomfortable viewing but finally empowers his mother and proves that Dwight is as pathetic as he is vicious. It provokes sympathy for his biological daughter, compassion for Toby’s continued torment, pride in his mother’s bravery, disgust and contempt for Dwight, and an unshakable horror that such a thing could have happened, and could be happening, behind closed suburban doors.

With so much evocation, this is not a film about the shaping of a writer. This film both contrasts and connects family roles now and in the 1950s, the difficulties of overcoming your upbringing, and the triumph of doing so. It’s also a disquieting reminder that you can never judge a book by its cover – be that book a moody teenager or an upstanding navy officer. This Boy’s Life doesn’t demand sympathy but instead earns admiration for Wolff as an individual and DiCaprio as an actor. It’s neither woeful nor uplifting, but irresistably watchable.

There are no extras but this simple story required no accessorising to make an impact on this viewer, save the apt and carefully selected soundtrack which compliments the action as much as the era it’s set in.