Much admired when it showed at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year, the British picture “Boy A” has an undeniably intriguing first act.
Somewhere in England, a young man called Jack (Andrew Garfield) is being discharged from an institution. His minder, Terry (Peter Mullan), gives him instructions about keeping his secrets from the people he meets.
The film’s style suggests science fiction; this could be a scene of a guy created in a test tube, sent into the world as a blank-slate experiment.
Slowly we realize that Jack is being released from a prison, or at least a juvenile detention center, and Terry is his supervisor. Clearly Jack has been given a new identity — but why?
These answers will come, and it wouldn’t be cricket to get too specific about them here. Based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell, “Boy A” heads into the murky question of how to deal with someone who has done something terrible in his distant past, even if his present life appears stainless.
Trigell probably based his novel on a real-life 1993 case that shocked Britain, about a boy who was killed at random by two older children. The material lends itself to a sensationalistic approach, which may be why director John Crowley has gone in the opposite direction.
The whole movie has a sterile, arty style, much in contrast to Crowley’s obnoxious 2003 crime picture, “Intermission.” After a while, I thought the style smothered the interesting story, and made the whole thing too precious by far.
It is well acted. Brit TV actress Katie Lyons is touching as Jack’s peppy co-worker, who gets drawn into an affair with the tongue-tied boy. Newcomer Garfield has just the right unformed quality — he looks like a very young Anthony Perkins — as the awkward Jack.
Best of all is Peter Mullan, the Scots actor best known for “My Name is Joe.” Mullan is one of the ablest actors alive at making you forget he’s acting, and here he etches another portrait of a sad, conflicted man. His performance feels more real than the movie around him.
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