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 Isn’t it just like a guy when left to his own devices to categorically ignore and trash all the structure and work his mate has put into keeping hearth and home, insisting on doing it his own way as he boasts all the while that his methods are vastly superior? What do women know about keeping house and raising children, anyway?
British sports journalist Joe Warr (Clive Owen) portrays that typical guy in The Boys Are Back when he tragically loses his lovely equestrian wife Katy (Laura Fraser) to a devastating sudden bout of cancer and is left to fend for himself and his rambunctious six-year-old son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). Their quaint and charming South Australian farm house soon becomes a pigsty as Joe adapts his own “just say yes” concept of raising Artie, also known as “free-range parenting.” In a way, it’s a throwback to the good old days when kids ran out of the house first thing in the morning, jumped on their bikes and were not seen or heard until dinnertime--except we still had to do chores and take baths. Joe does not care to heed any advice offered by his mother-in-law, Barbara (Julia Blake), or even the ghost of his dear departed Katy, who encourages him to “give Artie a cuddle” and make him brush his teeth more than once a week. All Joe knows is that he has a young boy who desperately misses his Mum, as he also does, and they need to get happy and move on fast. Maybe the chickens traipsing about the kitchen counter will get around to doing the dishes?
Joe’s son from his first marriage, preadolescent Harry (George MacKay), wants to spend time with the father who left him behind for Katy as well as meet the little brother who was a result of that affair. It’s heartbreaking to watch Harry as an outsider longingly witness his father and step-brother’s fun and loving relationship, struggling with why he was essentially abandoned by the same man. He keeps Joe at arm’s length and bonds with free-spirited Artie as he tentatively finds his place in the topsy-turvy household.
 Joe meets another single parent at Artie’s school, the divorced and wholesomely pretty Mia (Emma Lung), who becomes a good friend and confidant, although Joe blindly misses any hints that she wants something more and feels that he may be taking advantage of her sweet nature. Other than that, it’s status quo for the two boys and their father until Joe cannot avoid attending a major sporting event in Melbourne. He is turned down by both Mia and Barbara to watch the boys and first attempts to cover his assignment virtually. Finally, his back against the wall, he decides to leave the boys with Harry in charge. Joe learns that his personal way of dealing with a conflict that many working parents have to face horribly backfires on him, and finds he is again at square one as he tries to mend his relationships with the two most important men in his life.
Snaky comments about Joe’s theories on housekeeping and childrearing aside, The Boys Are Back is a glowing example of what can happen when a film is done right. With any other director, lead actor or supporting cast it could have been a bad Lifetime melodrama. Make no mistake, this one’s a tearjerker, but the tears are sincere and honest--there’s no shameless sentimental pandering. Instead, Scott Hicks (Shine, No Reservations) keeps it simple and real as star Clive Owen does the same, giving the film a flawed but ultimately likable and sympathetic protagonist. The young actors playing Joe’s sons are the second best thing here, reflecting and illuminating from Owen’s praise-worthy performance.
The Boys Are Back is available exclusively on DVD (Buena Vista Home Entertainment, MSRP: $29.99). The disc includes two bonus features: “The Boys Are Back: A Photographic Journey” and “A Father and Two Sons, On Set.”
 “The Boys Are Back: A Photographic Journey” is a 16-and-a-half-minute slide show of still photography of actual scenes and behind-the-scenes shots from The Boys Are Back with an instrumental soundtrack from the film. There is also an optional commentary by director Hicks. The photos are displayed in chronological order for the most part as Hicks discusses the film’s location, casting and the bonding process between Owen and his young costars. Hicks speaks in hushed and reverent tones as he also provides insight to decisions made in regards to adapting the autobiographical novel by Simon Carr (The Boys are Back in Town) to the screen. A few shots cover some deleted scenes; one in particular of Joe after a one-night stand with a female bartender in Melbourne while his sons are left home alone to fend for themselves (good call there, Mr. Hicks; even Clive Owen couldn’t have saved himself from that one!).
“A Father and Two Sons, On Set” is a very brief featurette (1.42 minutes) documenting novelist Simon Carr and his two sons meeting the two young actors who portrayed the boys in the film. The real teenage “Artie” horsing around with scene-stealer Nicholas McAnulty is charming.
Adapted for the screen by Allan Cubitt, it may seem at times that conflicts are thrown at Joe and his boys in The Boys Are Back only to be resolved a little too easily. Look past that, though, and enjoy a performance from a truly gifted actor who’s not bad on the eyes, admire Greig Fraser’s stunning cinematography of the wild and wonderful Southern Australian landscape and keep a box of tissues handy.
The Boys Are Back is now available on DVD.
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