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The Butcher Boy is exuberant, funny and horrific. It's passionate and inventive and unforgettable. The Butcher Boy was directed by Irishman Neil Jordan who's previous films are impressive. They include The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, Interview With A Vampire, and Michael Collins.

The Butcher Boy is based on a novel by Patrick McCabe who also co-wrote the screen play. I'm very pleased to relate that The Butcher Boy isn't based on a true story!!! I sure hope it isn't anyway.

The Butcher Boy is about a lad who commits a horrific murder in a rural Irish town. But the film certainly isn't solemn. Jordan has enlivened an essentially gory tale with a touch of inventive, sometimes humorous magic realism (a bewigged Sinead O'Connor plays The Virgin Mary). Jordan is also blessed by having available a wonderfully gifted leading actor.

Fifteen year old Eamonn Owens, a schoolboy in real life from near where The Butcher Boy was shot, plays 12 year old Francie Brady. Francie finds himself betrayed. His dad (Stephen Rea) is a drunk, his Ma (Aisling O'Sullivan) is suicidal. His best friend lets him down. The township and it's institutions aren't supportive. He eventually takes his revenge.

The boy also has visions. We could say he's imaginative as children should be, but this boy is cheerfully violent as well. The Butcher Boy doesn't discuss cause and effect at all, but such is the power of the film, most viewers will wonder how such a thing could happen. Was Francie schizophrenic? Was he a psychopath. If he had had a stable loving family what might have happened?

Regardless, Eamonn Owens is just terrific as the cheerful, energetic, often very funny Francie Brady. This red headed bundle of uninhibited, unselfconscious energy has created a very memorable screen character indeed. Neil Jordan must have been tickled pink to have such a lead for his film.

Leading English stage actress Fiona Shaw plays the prissy Mrs Nugent and Irish stalwart, Milo (the eyebrows) O'Shea plays a meddlesome priest. Stephen Rea fans won't find much to celebrate since Rea doesn't do much more than look drunk, sit, and kick in a television, but that's because The Butcher Boy quite rightly revolves around the wonderful, funny and bloody Eamonn Owens. See The Butcher Boy if you can.

The Butcher Boy is a very weird film...This boy Francie has a bad influence; his father. His father is a violent man, alcoholic, but he loves his son a lot...This boy is very well played by Eamonn Owens, a young actor I didn't know before who surely worths a look at his performance. Stephen Rea is perfect in the role of the violent father, and Fiona Shaw is great in the role of a woman who hates Francie, because he beats up her son. But Francie is dangerous...The story is a mix of fear, hate, madness, happiness, that is mixed up in that little boy's brain. Sometimes, he's the good boy who protects his mother and sometimes he is the murderer...Francie is full of contradictions, and he tries to put happiness and death together. The narrator is very funny, but sometimes tells innapropriate things for the images we watch...but that's the psychotic part of it...incredibly well-shot, this film deserves lots of attention. I bought it for five stupid dollars...and Lost In Space was fifteen dollars...and the video sold it because of the lack of rentals...well, too bad for this video, they have one less good film on the shelf.... Neil Jordan brought us The Crying Game, Interview With The Vampire, In Dreams and some other good films...but I believe this one is his finest job...it's like watching Sleepers, Psycho and A Clockwork Orange at the same time. One thing that could be a problem; the accent of the characters when they speak...but I was happy to see that it was not set in the United States...Great film... I give it 85% and maybe it deserves better.

Just caught this movie on cable; I hadn't heard of it before.

It is a brilliant film; black comedy of the blackest sort. What is truly amazing is the acting ability of lead Eamonn Owens; in my mind the finest performance of a kid his age that I've ever seen.

The sardonic humor of this film, the way it treats such horrible things as lightly as it does, the acting, the script, the quaint narrative devices, and sense of menace cloaked in charming small town Irish life make this a thoroughly original and engaging character study.

Sinead O'Connor is a scream as the Virgin Mary.

The thick accents in this film make it a little bit difficult to follow in parts, but American audiences should still be able to understand most of the dialogue.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough; it is proof that you can still make a quality movie without buying into cheap Hollywood cliches.

I've seen this one a few times over the years and it's never lost its impact in all this time. precocious protagonist Eammon Owens is amazing in the lead; his turn is a tour de force that keeps you riveted throughout the twisted tale. his small town Irish environment, the broken family around him and the unease caused by the threat of Cold War in the wider world all conspire to turn what are initially innocent childish shenanigans into something altogether deeper and darker. Owens' initial mischievous skirmishes with the locals introduce us to some interesting characters and although Owens himself comes across as a bit of a bully it's nice to see him enjoying youthful friendships and playing in the picturesque surroundings of his town. early on though it does become apparent that things are not quite right, firstly with his manic mother, then with his alcoholic father and lastly with Owens himself whose mind begins to unravel as we head towards the pitch black climax. the film is full of crazy episodes that veer from gleeful play to more disturbing moments and much in between. the supporting cast are great as well with excellent turns from Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Brendan Gleeson and an ace and unusual cameo from Sinéad O'Connor. Owens carries the film however and as i said his turn is amazing and keeps you glued in awe throughout. never a dull moment to be had, full of fascinatingly foul-mouthed dialogue, plenty of shards of wickedly black humour and a twisted tale that spirals from bucolic light to some very dark places... excellent stuff!

During the 1960's people were fearful of losing their world. What with the Cuban Missle Crises and the threat of Nuclear Winter, it's little wonder many hid in prayerful disillusion. For two young Irish boys, something loomed closer. Their lives encompassed their town, their family and their friendship. The first is Joe Purcell (Alan Boyle) a typical Irish boy out to enjoy his youth. The second is his best and closest friend named Francis Brady (Eamonn Owens) who becomes the unlikely hero in the movie, "The Butcher Boy." To Joe, friendship is a temporary bond which enhances life with laughter, pranks and boyhood imagination. But to Francis Brady, friendship is permanent and indelible which nothing on the planet, including Atomic fire, can separate. Enter, the boy's Nemesis, the town gossip and constant irritation to their bond. Mrs. Nugent, (Fiona Shaw) sees the boys as lowly delinquents, petty trouble makers, vicious bullies and future criminals. During the escalating conflict, the audience watches as Francis loses many of the people he loves. Eventually, Mrs. Nugent causes him to lose his best friend. Vengefully, Francis marks her for ultimate punishment. Audiences must decided the boy's reason for his erratic behavior. Was it his drunken father's (Stephen Rea) physical abuse, his mother's suicidal tendencies, incarceration at reform school, becoming a victim of sexual abuse by Father Sullivan (Milo O'Shea), subsequent shock treatments, increasing mental delusions of space aliens or iconic religious figures. It's little wonder Francsis commits the ultimate act of revenge. This is an honest, straight forward movie, which depicts the inner workings of a fragile but psychotic boy in crises. Many people allow maturity to transform them into adults, but some refuse, paying the inevitable price for doing so. ****