If you ask me if I have seeing a
movie like Boyhood before I would definitely answer yes. But if you ask me what
does Boyhood has in common with all those other similar movies, I would say very
little. Because Boyhood is a magnificent creation as life itself than being
just another movie. Boyhood surpasses
all movies in same genre and reaches a pinnacle of realism that as viewers we
get astonishingly surprised of. It seems as if our own lives has being put on
to a movie and some way or the other you feel that this movie is connected to
you so deeply and you get so attached to it. The simple reason why it is so is
because Boyhood is a project that spans 12 years in the making and us the
viewers get to witness the same set of cast age a decade and it is nothing we
have ever seeing before in a movie. We have seeing stories span across long
time periods but non what so ever was this natural and emotional.
The lead of Boyhood is a 5 year
old boy Mason (Ellar Coltrane) who lives with his mother and sister. His father
who is separated come to visit occasionally and this routine visits and the
phases of Masons’ life as growing up to become a teenager with his mother in
control of the household is the story of Boyhood. As a story Boyhood has no
heavy surprises or shocking moments just like most dramas of this sort has.
It’s very simple yet gradually moving and clearly shows how Masons’ perceptions
and attitude towards life evolves as he grows up. Boyhood is nearly three hours
long in duration but for me it is still too short. These three hours packs 13
years of a boys’ life and it is so refreshing to witness how his life go
through different phases and each of these phase has its own tragedies and
beauties.
The other 3 main casts Patricia
Arquette (Mom), Lorelei Linklater (Samantha the sister) and Ethan Hawk (Dad)
simultaneously adds in to the changing time and their own struggle of survival
within this 13 year spanning story which is also very well constructed. In that
sense this movie can be easily centered upon any of these 3 characters as well and
still will be very much appealing. But still the viewers can follow the story
from several angles while engaging with the main story line of Mason and that I
think is one of the many strengths of Boyhood over other coming of age movies. Yes,
Boyhood is not aggressively centered upon a single storyline.
Boyhood is not cheesy or over
dramatic or forces the viewer to get involved with it. But it somehow manages
to keep the viewer engaged and when it’s over you wish there were more. Life
goes on.
Genre: Drama
Director: Richard Linklater
-Priyantha Bandara
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