It’s 1984 in a beautiful but impoverished small town on New Zealand’s east coast, where an 11-year-old who everybody calls Boy gets an unexpected visit from his long-absent father. Featuring two fine performances from unknown Maori child actors, Boy, writer/director and co-star Taika Waititi’s coming-of-age story of a Michael Jackson-obsessed tween struggling to understand his slacker dad shines with humor, heartbreak, and tenderness throughout.
Boy (James Rolleston) is a kid with some very adult responsibilities. He lives with his grandmother, younger brother Rocky (Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu), and several other younger children in a small house that has seen better days. When their grandmother leaves for a funeral in the city, Boy has to care for the children, something he seems to have plenty of experience at. When his father Alamein (Taika Waititi) shows up unannounced with two of his buddies, Boy is thrilled and welcomes the three men with open arms. Dad is home, after all, and that’s all Boy cares about. Young Rocky, however, senses something suspicious of his father’s and his true intentions, a hunch that proves correct. Although Alamein seems to truly love his two sons, the main purpose of his visit is to find a bag of money he buried while running from the police years earlier.
Boy is a dreamer. For years, he’s imagined his father as a war hero, a romantic, and a perfect man who has promised to come home and take him to see Michael Jackson live. The power of the movie is watching Boy deal with the real-life version of his dad, a foolish hood who has never even visited his wife’s grave (she died giving birth to Rocky). Rolleston is full of innocence and emotion as Boy. Despite all of the adult situations thrown his way, Boy is still a boy, from his Michael Jackson sketches to his conversations with his pet goat, and you can’t help but laugh and cry with him along the way.
Another shining light that makes Boy worth seeing is Eketone-Whitu as Rocky. This kid is so cute and good on screen that he nearly steals the spotlight from Rolleston. Rocky knows his mother died giving him life, an event that Rocky believes has instilled him with special powers. He’s quiet and wise beyond his years, the complete opposite of the loud and desperate-to-be-cool Boy.
A scene from the film “Boy.” © 2010 Unison Films.
The cinematography of Boy is wonderful. This is the real rural New Zealand, physically beautiful but painfully poor. A lesser filmmaker might try to “show off” New Zealand’s natural wonders at the risk of losing the human story, but Waititi and director of photography Adam Clark achieve a perfect balance, using the magnificent coastal landscapes to enhance the story rather than steal from it.
It’s hard to criticize anything about Boy. That’s how good it is. Yes, the Michael Jackson obsession never really gains steam, but a surprise video at the end and a plethora of other 1980s pop-culture references make up for that. In the end, if you love adorable little kids and want to see a powerful, non-formulaic, genre-defying story about a Maori boy from New Zealand who simply wants a decent father, then go see Boy.
And be sure to stay until the final credit fades. There’s a cool thing with a goat that will put a smile on your face. (Hint: It’s Michael Jackson related.)
