This Boy’s Life **** (1993, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire) – Classic Movie Review 1,434

Director Michael Caton-Jones’s riveting and disturbing 1993 American biographical coming-of-age movie This Boy’s Life stars the amazing actor that was the young Leonardo DiCaprio. He is extraordinarily compelling, quite mesmerising, as Tobias ‘Toby’ Wolff, an early 1950s teenager trying to adjust to the frustrated rage of his stepfather Dwight Hansen (Robert De Niro) while his flaky, passive mother Caroline (Ellen Barkin) refuses to ‘referee’ their arguments.

An adaptation by screen-writer Robert Getchell of the real-life writer and literature professor Tobias Wolff’s memoir, the film also features Chris Cooper, Carla Gugino, Eliza Dushku and Tobey Maguire in his feature debut.

Caroline just wants to settle down in one place, find a good man and provide a better home for her son and herself. When she moves to Seattle, Washington, and meets the seemingly respectable Dwight, she thinks she has found what she is looking for. But, though the stepfather seems to want to Toby into a better person, his methods include emotionally, verbally and physically abusing the boy.

At school, Toby befriends a classmate, the misfit and ambiguously gay Arthur Gayle (Jonah Blechman).

There is not a single false note in the performances, nor in Robert Getchell’s screenplay nor in Caton-Jones’s handling. The film is surprisingly warm, witty and funny as well as being extremely dark-toned, unsettling and incredibly poignant.

Barkin gives a superlative performance as a loving mother overwhelmed by life’s adversities, while De Niro is funny, pathetic and finally touching as the monster stepfather-from-hell. But the film belongs to DiCaprio, looking 14 but actually aged 19, taking his character’s every mood and emotion seemingly effortlessly in his stride. He is such a natural actor and it is a brilliant performance.

The great soundtrack uses many songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, while Carter Burwell’s pensive score features New York guitarist Frederic Hand.

It was mostly shot in the state of Washington, where the town of Concrete (where Tobias Wolff’s teen years were spent with his mother and stepfather) was transformed to its 1950s appearance. The citizens were used as extras, and all external and some internal scenes were shot there, including the former elementary school and the still-active Concrete High School building.

It ended up taking $4,104,962 on its American release, which seems very little but is probably good going for this kind of intelligent movie.

In real life, Dwight died in 1992, Caroline remarried and moved to Florida, Arthur left Concrete and became a successful businessman in Italy and Dwight’s children all married and stayed in Seattle.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Barkin.

De Niro and Caton-Jones teamed up again for City by the Sea in 2002.

It is the first film with Maguire and DiCaprio, who later worked on Don’s Plum (2001) and The Great Gatsby (2013).

It is the first film with DiCaprio and De Niro, who later worked on Marvin’s Room (1996) and Martin Scorsese’s short film The Audition (2015), and finally in 2023 teamed up again for Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

American screenwriter Robert Getchell (December 6, 1936 – October 21, 2017) wrote the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and the 1981 biopic Mommie Dearest.

Tobias Wolff was born June 19, 1945.

The cast are Leonardo DiCaprio as Tobias ‘Toby’ Wolff/ ‘Jack’, Robert De Niro as Dwight Hansen, Ellen Barkin as Caroline Wolff Hansen, Jonah Blechman as Arthur Gayle, Eliza Dushku as Pearl Hansen, Chris Cooper as Roy, Carla Gugino as Norma Hansen, Zack Ansley as Skipper Hansen, Tracey Ellis as Kathy, Kathy Kinney as Marian, Tobey Maguire as Chuck Bolger, Michael Bacall as Terry Taylor, Gerrit Graham as Mr. Howard, Sean Murray as Jimmy Voorhees, Lee Wilkof as Principal Skippy, Bill Dow as Vice Principal, Jen Taylor as Deputy O’Riley and Deanna Milligan and Morgan Brayton as Silver Sisters.

http://derekwinnert.com/city-by-the-sea-2002-robert-de-niro-james-franco-frances-mcdormand-classic-movie-review-1429/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,434

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/