‘Boyhood’: the film that never seems to grow up

Feb. 5, 2015 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Ethan Hawke, right, plays the father of Ellar Coltrane’s character, Mason, in “Boyhood.”
Reminder Publications submitted photo

A look at an Academy Award nominated film is this week’s film review.

At the Redbox: Boyhood

My interest in his film was piqued when I heard a conversation about it between Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette on NPR’s “Fresh Air.” Hawks and Arquette are the nominal leads of this film, but really it is carried by the performance of Ellar Coltrane as the boy whose boyhood we watch.

Director and writer Richard Linklater started filming when Coltrane (playing Mason Evans Jr.) was six years old. It ends with the now 18-year-old entering college. I don’t believe anyone has done a fictional film in this manner – filming during  a 12-year period.

Director Michael Apted did do something similar with his “Up Series,” in which he follows the same group of people starting at age seven every seven years. He completed the latest installment “56 Up” in 2012.

 I’ve always wanted to see Apted’s film as it sounds like a very compelling sociological experiment. It has the potential to present the sort of real drama that we all face in our lives.

That’s what I hoped “Boyhood” would be like, but what I saw was the complete opposite. The story certainly had drama, but the central character walked through it as a passive observer.

Yes, I understand that children do often react that way to traumatic events, but does that make for a good story? The interesting choice Linklater made was by ending his experiment when Mason Jr. is 18. It is only then he is starting to become interesting. The question with which I was left is how did his boyhood affect him as an adult? We don’t know that answer.

The film follows Mason’s parents – Olivia (Arquette) and Mason Sr. (Hawke) – and we first see them when Mason Jr. is six.

His parents are divorced and Olivia has decided to move to Houston so she can go back to school and better her life. Mason Sr. comes to visit his kids and he has apparently been working in Alaska for several years.

The plot of the film is advanced by the decisions made by Olivia who marries one of her college professors and divorces him after he becomes violent and alcoholic. She moves again and becomes involved with one of her students – she is now a psychology professor – which is also a disaster.

Mason Sr. wanders in and out of his son’s life with his parental visits. He has abandoned his goal of being a singer/songwriter and works in insurance.

Mason Jr. comes across as an average kid. He doesn’t really talk to his parents, but a viewer might suspect that he doesn’t really have much to say.

Are there people in your life who had failed marriages? Have you known pleasant kids who grew into inarticulate seemingly ambition-less teens? Sure you have. Do you want to spend 165 minutes of your life watching their story? Not unless you have to.

I want films to entertain me, challenge me, teach me something or make me think. This film did nothing but bore me.

Short take: Gone Girl

Now available on DVD, “Gone Girl” is a film best seen with no knowledge of what is about to unfold. Allow this film to strap you in and take you for a great roller coaster ride. A murder mystery and a character study, the film makes great use of Ben Affleck’s ability to portray a clueless, morally ambivalent protagonist. Rosamund Pike is amazing as Amy Dunne, the “Gone Girl.”

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