The living conditions for the Maori children in a remote New Zealand community are in opposite proportion to the rich beauty of the countryside. Nobody’s really complaining; life is what it is, and the kids have recognizable hopes and fears and everyday ways of having fun.
Our focal point is an 11-year-old known as Boy (played by James Rolleston), whose life is about to change. His absent and irresponsible father, Alamein (writer-director Taika Waititi) shows up one night, accompanied by two equally shiftless members of his “gang.” Alamein drives a cool car, has a cool mustache, and speaks a fluent pop-culture babble of Michael Jackson and “E.T.” The year is 1984.
This is the world of “Boy,” a Kiwi film that walks a delicate line between seriousness and goofiness — in other words, a familiar vibe for New Zealand movies. Waititi previously directed the ultra-whimsical “Eagle vs. Shark,” and he’s been involved in the comedy series “Flight of the Conchords.”
His instincts are comedic, but there’s too much at stake in “Boy” to settle for easy humor. Boy and his brother Rocky (Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu) lost their mom when Rocky was born, and their Grandma tends them along with a batch of cousins and other kids.
The sudden arrival of Alamein gives Boy, at long last, something to be captivated by. It doesn’t matter to an 11-year-old that Alamein is a screw-up whose main purpose in returning home is to dig up a bag of money he buried somewhere.
As he explains to his mates, the money will be easy to find: It’s buried a certain number of steps from a post. He just can’t remember exactly how many steps. Or which post.
He’s the kind of manchild who imagines spending some of the money on buying dolphins for himself and his sons. “All three of us on dolphins. Go anywhere, do anything we want.” He really sort of means well, except he’s kind of a jerk.
The audience sees that Boy is setting up for disillusionment, just as we see that Boy is chasing the wrong female classmate. But he’ll have to live through these things for himself, and watching his progress is credible and touching, especially in Rolleston’s guile-free performance.
Waititi’s own performance leans toward the wacky, and while Alamein has an unpleasant side, the stress is on his comic foibles. All of it is larger than life to his son, of course, who is so starved for fatherly attention he overlooks the bad stuff — until, finally, he can’t overlook it any more. A familiar lesson, but winningly and memorably played out.
“Boy” (3 stars)
A Maori boy in a remote New Zealand town is thrilled by the sudden arrival of his wandering father (writer-director Taika Waititi), even if the dad is a comically shiftless fool. A very winning Kiwi blend of seriousness and goofiness.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for language, violence.
Showing: Varsity.
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