Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

jean-vincent After reading the book, I was curious to see what Neil Jordan made of it. First: the book tells a gripping tragedy, a boy is going down under thanks to the adults around him. Mrs Nugent comes first, then the priest in the reformatory. The red line in the story is the word PIGS, first used by Nugent, against the boy and his family. That is the onset of his brutal behavior. From now on he will be a PIG. Still, he trusts his friend, the priests in the reformatory and will only see his trust badly abused, which aggravates his behavior and makes him furiously rebellious. The mothers suicide and the death of his father are achieving him as a deeply disturbed, psychotic boy. Neil Jordan has turned a tragedy into comedy, without any regards for the psychological drama. Sure the book, because of his psychological depth, might be very difficult to turn into a script. I see that most of the reviewers didn't read the book and could not compare. If I give a 6 out of ten, is to the benefit of the actors, nor to Neil Jordan's film. Jordan has disappointed me.

Bene Cumb Talented filmmaker Neil Jordan provides - with the help of even talented Irish actors - a peculiar overview of life in a small Irish town in the 1960ies, long before Ireland began to enjoy its economic success and openness to the rest of the world, even to rest of Europe. Through the eyes of an uncertain yet sensual boy Francie (splendidly performed by Eamonn Owens, definitely in my Top10 list of child actors), the viewers get a picture of issues and phenomena in a closed and conservative, rather poor society, with religion prevailing in virtually all layers of everyday life. Advancing is hard, there are different fears and setbacks, and all this is easily combined with growing pains - resulting with the fate we see by the example of Francis. True, there are bright moments and phenomena, but there is often laugh through tears, well, you can seldom laugh, just giggle at best. Nevertheless, the approach is nuanced, and character actors like Stephen Rea or Fiona Shaw provide additional, valuable angles.All in all, The Butcher Boy is another coming off by Neil Jordan. His admirers will not get disappointed. Probably others, too, unless they have black-and-white world view or are very religious. And it is hardly an educational family film...

Boba_Fett1138 The movie is basically about growing up under tough circumstance, which is not without its emotional scars and eventually leads up to only more tragedy. It makes the movie sound like such a downer but the movie actually has a sort of light and pleasant atmosphere to it, that is hard to describe or compare to anything else but bottom-line is that it works out well and makes the movie a still mostly pleasant one.Not that the movie is always easy to watch though. It's still being a bit of a difficult movie to follow at times but it never goes overboard with anything. The movie just takes a too light and simplistic approach for that, which is all something positive in this case.I didn't really expected this but it really is a movie that is all about its young characters. All of the adults are truly being secondary characters in this and I would say that Eamonn Owens is on the screen for about 95% of the time, if not an 100% but just don't pin me on that. And I quite like movies that are entirely being told from the viewpoint of a young kid. I don't know, it's always easy to somewhat identify with I guess, since everybody used to be a young kid at one point.You also could say that it's a movie about the loss of innocence. Due to circumstance the young characters in this movie have to mature very fast, while they still have the needs and minds of a young child in them. This leads to some pretty surprising developments at times. Thing that this movie mostly has going for it is its originality. It's being original with its story but even more so with its approach. It also was the right approach to take in my opinion, since this movie would had been an incredible dry and heavy one had it been done as a completely serious drama.Definitely watchable but I should still say that this movie most definitely won't be everybody's cup of tea.7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

lost-in-limbo In an Irish town in the mid 60s we follow the life of a ruthless young boy Francie, who has an unstable family and bleak life. He receives beatings from his alcoholic father who never seems to be sober and his mother is always on the brink of suicide. What keeps him going is his relationship with his best friend Joe and enjoying their childhood, but soon enough all that changes when he loses everyone close to him and that's the pot-boiler for Francie. As now his life has taken a sudden change and the effects have caused a dramatic turn for the worst.I really have to take my hat off to this stark Irish drama, which is based on the novel by Pat McCabe. Compelling black comedy (of the blackest kind) that has a real bitterness but manages to cross the line of fantasy as well. But that doesn't destroy the horrific reality of the problems the kid faces, as we go through the ups and downs of this young boy's life. The surreal moments of hallucination are there more for the wicked humour and to show the boy's wild sense of illusion. It wasn't what I expected it to be, but that's not taking anything away from it. Bubbling with zest and imagination, but also not forgetting the shocking and moving moments that really do capture the mind. It's just pretty hard to categorise, because it throws almost everything into the dark story. What hits you in the face is that of the thick and blunt sense of humour, which lashes out at the viewer, and it's sometimes quite funny in a roughly morbid sense. The blend of light-hearted moments does give this film more heart and an emotional edge, but that doesn't take away from the brutal moments in the flick. The violence is in your face and towards the end it takes a totally vicious turn.Eamonn Owens is fantastic as the foul-mouthed brat Francie who's always up to mischief. We see it all from this three-dimensional character's point of view. His knockout performance is the film, by giving a disturbing portrayal of an eccentric character that uses a cheerful mode to cover up his messy upbringing, where he picks up after his parents. When he becomes alienated you really do feel sorry for this character even though he is violent and crude beyond belief. The rest of the supporting cast with likes of Stephen Rae are more than adequate and work off each other impeccably well, but it's Owens show. The narration throughout the film, which is done by the older character of Francie, is rather witty and cynical, with it sometimes interacting with the younger character. The dialog coming out of everyone's mouths is very much bright and snappy with their heavy accents, but Francie attitude took the cake. The director Neil Jordan also gets a node in my books for creating such a profound texture with its many unpredictable paths and capturing the bleak times of a working class family struggling to cope. Simply it's beautifully illustrated with shades of beauty and horror gelling perfectly."The Butcher Boy" knows how to shake you about with the trouble that's lurking underneath this cheerful lad, just waiting to explode. It's amusing, but at the same time sickening in the realism. A very odd but stinging flick that's very impressive!