From director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Michael Collins, The Brave One), this Irish film used to be listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was certainly hoping it deserved that placement. Basically set in Ireland in the early 1960s, in the small town of Clones, twelve year old Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens) is an imaginative boy who loves comic books, movies and television, and these fuel his interest in aliens, communism and the Atomic Age. Francie's mother Annie aka Ma (Aisling O'Sullivan) is a manic depressive, and suffering a nervous breakdown commits suicide, Francie is left in the care of his emotionally distant and ill-tempered alcoholic father Benny aka Da (Stephen Rea), and to get away Francie spends most of his time with his best friend Joe Purcell (Alan Boyle). More despair follows when Joe is sent to boarding school, and then he starts having conflicts with the neighbours, another boy, Phillip Nugent (Andrew Fullerton) and his nasty mother Mrs. Nugent (Harry Potter's Fiona Shaw), this friction was spawned from some form of paranoia. He finds work in the local abattoir which helps him earn some needed money, but then his father dies after drinking himself to death, the continuing argument goes to the point when Francie's condition has worsened with more bizarre behaviour, and he goes too far and murders Mrs. Nugent, who he blamed for all things going wrong. Francie is sent by the authorities to an asylum to attempt to help him recover and return to reality, but this is difficult as he cannot help but have fantasies and conversations with the spirit of a foul-mouthed Virgin Mary (singer Sinéad O'Connor), he is molested by priest Father Sullivan (Milo O'Shea), and the town will probably never forgive him following his shocking brutality. Also starring Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's Ian Hart as Uncle Alo, Father Ted's Ardal O'Hanlon as Mr. Purcell, Alan Boyle as Joe Purcell, Niall Buggy as Father Dom, Brendan Gleeson as Father Bubbles and Never Mind the Buzzcocks's Sean Hughes as Psychiatrist #1. As the young boy near adolescence Owens gives a brilliant performance, and the performances of Rea and O'Connor add to it also, this is film full of both darkness and surrealism as the first mischievous child working in a slaughterhouse has his world slowly crumbling around him and his mental state deteriorates, but there are moments to make you laugh too, I admit some bits were slow, but overall I found it a most interesting black comedy drama. Very good!
Review of The Butcher Boy
