Funny Boy

Many aspects of this film are fascinating, like the scenery and location shots. Cannot speak to the 'Tamil' voice/accent issue which is of concern to many. I did read that there has been a lot of voice dubbing which would explain why, at times, the spoken English(unsubtitled) is difficult to understand. The meat market scene is presented without appropriate context. I found the scenes where the main character was jumped back and forth in age to be annoying rather that developmental. However, the film does seem to capture well the trauma of being caught up in ethnic/religious disputes.

I just watched this film, and I enjoyed it so much I rushed here to give it my rating - My decided rating usually reflects the overall IMDb score. Therefore, I was surprised to find a 5.5 score. However, I saw that one person gave Funny Boy a 1-star rating based on the fact the language spoken was incorrect. Seriously? This film does not bill itself as a true story; it is a work of fiction set in a location and period of historical significance. But even so, no mature person rates a film based on one flaw. What about cinematography, the plot, the dialogue, the acting, etc. All these things should inform a person's score. Therefore, this film deserves a far better score than what it presently has.

I plead ignorance to what happened in Sri Lanka, prior to watching this movie. I understand if people are disappointed if it wasn't Tamil people playing the parts. But I'm SO glad I ignored 95% of the reviews on here. This is a good movie. People are rating it so poorly because of politics (as I say, they may have a point but that's not *my* point).

I'm confident the majority of 1 star reviews are written by a few people with multiple accounts. It's a shame, as if I had listened to them - and avoided the movie, I wouldn't have learned what happened. I am now (because of this movie) more aware and have since read up on what happened. That wouldn't have happened without this movie.

But anyway! I was gutted when this ended, and it made me feel plenty of emotions. I got angry, I got upset when I related to the little gay boy so much, I laughed at the brazenness of the sparring kids, and I mourned what happened between the two people.

If like me you're looking for a movie that will make you feel and make you think - I'd definitely recommend Funny Boy.

Funny boy is something most Sri Lankan teenagers (who grew up in the late 80s and 90s ) can relate to. We lived most of our lives through a devastating civil war for over a decade. We suppressed so much during this time. Watching the main character struggle with expressing himself is so relatable it hurts! As much as I love Nimmi Harasgama, I think Brandon Ingram, Rehan Mudannayake and Aaarush Nand are definitely divas to watch out for!

I understand the controversy surrounding the casting, but as a Sri Lankan I stand by the artist's decision. It is a beautiful story Deepa Mehta wanted to share with us, and we need to respect the creative team and their decisions.

I wish the entire cast and crew the very best at the upcoming Academy awards! YOU GUYS HAVE MY VOTES! ( this includes my 10,000 other personalities.)

keep slaaaying!

I want to deal with one of the criticisms of the film right away. I do not speak any of the languages of the sub continent at all and wouldn't recognise the difference between Sinhalese or Tamil to save my life. Therefore the poor-quality spoken dialogue from the non-Tamil actors playing members of that ethnic group was something I obviously never picked up on. OK, I'd be furious if I was watching a German film and, say, Swedish people were speaking poor German and pretending to be that nationality. But as I was in no position to pick up on this here, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

I always enjoy films that combine personal dramas and stories with sweeping political and societal events. Here we had them all in spades. Family dynamics, prejudices in both the domestic sphere and the national arena, differing viewpoints on how to deal with inter-community strife.

Within a country whose idyllic existence is slowly being rent apart by ethnic tensions, a wealthy family lives these problems in microcosm. The plot outline on IMDB contains many spoilers but I am not going to be so crass. The film concentrates on two periods, first of all in 1974 when Arjie is a child interested in dressing up as a girl with a protective auntie encouraging him and his parents attempting to get him to "man up". We see the prejudices that occurred even then between Sinhalese and Tamils. And Aunty Radha forced to depart for Canada because of them.

Then we follow Arjie in his teenage years when prejudice is turning into hatred between communities. He is caught up in this in both his love life and with his family whose patriarch wrongly thought their position in society would protect them.

It's a part of history I knew about, but not in detail. I have looked it up since and can see that, although there is not a clear political context in the film, the major issues and events seem to be true. I was mesmerised throughout and fascinated by both the wider and the personal stories. I'm so glad I saw this film.