Before we went to see this film, I started to read a favorable review of it.  In its first paragraph, the review stated that in order to properly experience Boy A, you really need to only have the slightest notion of what it is about.  Any description of the plot, any knowledge of the things which may or may not happen, will cause you to spend too much time trying to figure out what WILL happen, instead of just experiencing the moment.

This happens to be a major problem for me with many movies.  If I’ve seen a trailer, I remember the scenes and part of my mind uses those scenes to try and determine the course the film will take.  And having seen Boy A, I happen to agree with that reviewer.  The experience of the film is better if you know little about it. 

The simplest, most generic synopsis I can give Boy A is Andrew Garfield plays Jack, a young man who is being released from prison for a crime he committed as a child.  But in order to protect his anonymity, he is creating a new identity for himself.  That name, Jack, is the first piece of the identity.

Boy A touches on a number of emotional or complicated topics, ones in which there is no true right and wrong, no black and white: rehabilitation, punishment, redemption, the value of a human life, forgiveness, revenge, hatred, blame.  Are we what we did, or are we what we do now, or are we what we feel, or a combination of all of those things?  Are we how we feel about ourselves, or are we how others see us and how others feel about us?  If we love, and if we receive love, are we worthy of love?  If we are hated, are we deserving of that hate?

The cinematography and direction of Boy A is quite well done.  Each scene carries with it the light and dark of life.  A nightclub can at one moment be exciting and full of energy, and at the next a mass of bodies cramped together.  Peacefulness can seem like loneliness.  A functional room can be claustrophobic.  A hero can be a villain.  And a friend can be an enemy.

Boy A is already disappearing from theaters, so if you miss it, watch fir the DVD.  And don’t read the back of the box.  Just rent it and watch it.