Boys

"Boys" is proof positive that two young, attractive leads, Wynona Ryder and Lukas Haas, can't always compensate for a complex, uninvolving plot. Make no mistake, Ryder and Haas are both as good as they can be, given the material, and their love scenes, particularly at the carnival, do generate a goodly ammount of heat. But, on the whole, the story is far too complex and uninvolving. By the time the central mystery is unraveled, you find yourself asking what all the fuss was about. In short, a dynamic team wasted on a trite picture.

It took a lot of gnashing and grinding of teeth for me to finish this mediocre film. The only thing that kept me going on was the fact that winona ryder was in it. I kept telling myself, "she wouldn't do a movie THIS bad..it probably gets better towards the end..". They say you should always trust your first instincts. In this case, they were dead on the mark. Unless you are totally obsessed with winona ryder and need to see every single one of her movies, AVOID.

I read a book (a short story) that this movie was based on and it was good but I think that the movie is better. That is probably cause I dont like to read.

Winona Rider and Lukas Haas make the story believable. Its a really good movie.

I do not care what other users say, this was a good movie. The acting was superb, the directing was on target, and the photography was absolutely beautiful. A fitting soundtrack, a very sufficient cast, and quality transition between short-story and screen. Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas give a chemistry that you cannot find in many movies these days, especially with youth actors. Ok, Granted- that the story builds up and then lets you off to a bad explanation and dull outcome, the ride up to the climax was marvelous. I voted this movie an 8, and anyone who devoutly disagrees can go take a film making course and actually learn to critique.

I liked this movie. Imagine a teenager, named John, the typical guy who goes to the last year of high school and doesn't quite know what to do with his life. Then, one day, he finds a beautiful woman lying on the floor in a field who, apparently, is on the run for something she did and takes her to his room. It's a boarding school, he might get kicked out, but he doesn't care; he just wants to help her. The look on his face when the woman first wakes up and the teenager walks towards her, is the first sign of a magical performance by Lukas Hass; it's a look that combines the excitement of having this woman in his bed and the curiosity of wanting to know what she might have done.

The woman is called Patty Vare, played by the wonderful Winona Ryder in the kind of role she knows by heart but never forgets to add new elements to. Here, besides appearing to be somewhere other than the real world (she fell off a horse before John found her and doesn't remember much), she masters the 'look'; that seductive look only she can achieve and makes anyone go crazy to the point that they would do anything for her. Well, at least that's the effect it had on John in the movie…And on me, of course.

But don't get things wrong. I personally don't think "Boys" is a romantic movie, even if it was writer/director Stacy Cochran's intention. I would call it some kind of an 'age analysis'. Yes, there are romance related moments that make you smile because Winona is an expert on the subject, but this time her character Patty is an expert too: on men. So the study the film tries to make is what can happen when a woman of Patty's experience meets a kid like John in an extreme situation.

That's why Cochran shows us flashbacks of what happened to Patty before meeting John; they're necessary for us to know the kind of woman she is. On the other hand, we don't know anything about John but the fact that he has a bad relationship with his father (a respectable Chris Cooper). But we don't need to know, because we realize when he is with Patty; when we hear what he says and see what he does.

There's a scene in the town fair, where Patty and John are together in the merry-go-round. The final moment of that scene explains why I liked this movie, and those are the scenes in the movie that work. Not the police sub-plot (led by a convincing John C. Reilly), not John's relationship with his friends at school (although some scenes are good to watch more of Hass' perfect work), not even the conflict with his father.

There's another scene really worth paying attention too: a chat in a table where a beautiful light from the window makes Patty seem so vulnerable. Luckily for us, this is a movie where we have the final world; about whether we believe the characters or not and about the inconclusive and far-fetched ending. Yes, it may not honor reality itself, but "Boys" honors its title; and I liked that. I liked this movie.