By LOU LUMENICK
Rating: 
Last updated: 8:03 am
July 23, 2008
Posted: 3:11 am
July 23, 2008
JOHN Crowley's "Boy A" is a well-acted but familiar British drama about a 24-year-old parolee (Andrew Garfield) haunted by a horrible crime in which he participated as a child.
His caseworker Terry (Peter Mullan) urges the young man, who has assumed the name Jack for his own protection, to put behind his lurid past. But it's not an easy task when the tabloids have blaring headlines about Jack's release and vigilantes are offering a reward for information on his whereabouts.
Jack dates a sweet co-worker (Katie Lyons) and bonds with another colleague (Shaun Evans) who joins him in a heroic rescue. But Jack's guilt is multiplied by his deception - even as Jack's success story gnaws at Terry's son, another felon who can't quite reinvent himself.
"Boy A" moves in a predictable path that includes some remarkable coincidences. It also teases the audience by slowly revealing flashbacks of Jack's crime, which turns out to be somewhat anti-climactic.
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (profanity, sex, disturbing images). At Film Forum, Houston and Varick streets.
BOY A
