Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 05/13/2003
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DDS2.0
Run Time: 114 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Profanity, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
A single mother and her difficult son find family life isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be in this
drama adapted from writer and professor
Tobias Wolff's 1989 memoir of the same name. Nomadic, flaky
Caroline (
Ellen Barkin) just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy, and provide a better home for her handful of a son,
Toby (
Leonardo DiCaprio). When she moves to Seattle and meets the respectful, respectable
Dwight Hansen (
Robert DeNiro), she thinks she's got it made.
Toby, however, feels differently after spending a few months with
Dwight and his children and away from
Caroline. The boy's stepfather-to-be seems to want to mold
Toby into a better person, but to do so he emotionally, verbally, and physically abuses the kid. The marriage proceeds, and soon
Caroline, too, recognizes
Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him. She sticks with it, though, convinced it's the best thing for her son, and several years of dysfunction ensue. During this time,
Tobias befriends another misfit, the possibly homosexual young
Jonah (
Arthur Gayle), while continuing to chafe under the yoke of his repressive stepfather.
This Boy's Life provided the first lead role for future superstar
DiCaprio. The film was written by
Robert Getchell, who also penned such mother/son fare as
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and
The Client.
~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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