User Reviews

Leonardo DiCaprio after a stint with "Growing Pains" moves to the movies and how he made it big and critics took notice over on him being and holding his own against an acting legend like Robert DeNiro.

He plays Leo's mean stepfather who abuses Leo's Tobais mentally, physically, and emotionally. What Ellen Barkin the mother and the one who married Robert's Dwight in seeing their way out of poverty nearly but in the end, she realizes her mistake.

Really such a sad movie but it does in having a great ending there. Based on a true story.

Robert DeNiro is one of the finest living actors of Hollywood, most of his movies are pure gold, not to mention this fine film "The Boy's Life". He and not too well known at the time Leonardo made a wonderful coming of age story. Toby is a boy who is constantly on the move with his mother. He gets into trouble at school, smokes, and swears, not your straight arrow kid. But when his mother's new boyfriend, Dwight, offers to take him and turn him into a "straight arrow" boy with a good future, he does so. When he and the mother finally marry, Dwight's true colors start to show and not for the good. He's an alcoholic and abusive drunk who will not rest until everyone goes into his ways of thinking. With some other little unknowns like Eliza Dushku and Tobey Maguire, this is a terrific film.

The acting is just incredible. The chemistry that feeds off of Robert and Leo going back and forth of their fights and anger, it's incredible. Leo's talents just shine and I would highly recommend this film if you enjoyed "Stand By Me". What a great movie!

9/10

When the words This Boy's Life and Based on a true story appeared within the first few seconds of this movie, I was almost tempted to switch off. Because it looked like something I'd seen in many a TV movie. And I hate TV movies. I've got a real personal bias against them. Because they're so predictable. They dot every i. Cross every t. And they're need for sentiment is nauseating. I was expecting very much the same of This Boy's Life.

But then when I saw Robert De Niro's name on the credits, that gave me pause for thought. So I decided to stay with the film a little while longer. And was pleasantly surprised.

This Boy's Life is a quite compelling portrait of a family on the verge of flying apart. There's not only a strong, commanding performance from Robert De Niro, but an impressively assured one from a young (and then unknown) Leonardo DiCaprio.

DiCaprio plays Tobias 'Toby' Wolff, a rebellious teen of the 1950s. After heading South with his mother Caroline (Ellen Barkin), they wind up in the charmingly titled Concrete, USA.

Hoping for a fresh start after breaking up with an abusive boyfriend, Caroline gets involved with Dwight Hansen (De Niro). The man is an obvious snake-oil salesman. He flatters Caroline constantly. Dazzling her with the use of a lighter. Complimenting her on her "Java". And Toby sees right through him.

Toby knows Dwight is as useless a father and husband as he is a human being. But Caroline is so desperate to marry into a happier life, that it isn't long before she foolishly gets hitched to him. And that's when the trouble starts.

Dwight is a bully. Pure and simple. He enjoys antagonising Toby. Beating up on him. Hoarding his paper route money away for a rainy day. And all because he's trying to make a man of him. Or so Dwight says.

I suppose This Boy's Life isn't terribly original, nor does it do anything strikingly different with the theme of fractured families. But the performances from the excellent cast goes some way towards making up for that.

When I did see Robert De Niro on the credits, on the one hand it enlivened my original flagging spirits, but on the other I proceeded into the film with caution.

I'd just recently watched De Niro in Cape Fear, a film that contains one of his worst ever performances. A performance so annoyingly over the top, he lost all credibility in the role. Even now, 16 years later I still can't watch that film without cringing.

So it was something of a relief to see him revert to form in This Boy's Life. He (mostly) resists the temptation to go overboard, and thoroughly convinces as an abusive bully.

Dwight is quite fascinating to watch. This is a man who feels terminally put upon. He's the victim here. The one who's been shortchanged throughout all his life. He's been left to raise three kids alone. As well as a stepson. His dreams have never come to fruition. So he sees nothing wrong with thwarting the dreams of those around him. Including Toby's.

In his breakout role, Leonardo DiCaprio works wonders. He brings a superb eagle-eyed maturity to Toby. Interesting considering he doesn't always have that quality in some of his later films. But here he's got this character nailed. The way he rotates from frustrated to rebellious and (rare moments of) happiness is just marvellous.

De Niro is careful too the way he shows to us what a thoroughly reprehensible monster he is. Like the little glance he gives us when he learns Caroline's a better shot than him. And then once they're married, his grip closes like a vice, allowing him to cut loose. He does occasionally lapse into some borderline theatrics, but it doesn't ruin the film the way it did Cape Fear.

The ending is quite satisfying too. The inevitable confrontation between Dwight and Toby. I was half expecting it to devolve into a standard psycho-thriller, but This Boy's Life is too smart for that. It's still quite violent, but its an ending that feels true to life. Dwight's pleas at the end sound so pathetic you feel as much pity for him as you do derision.

This Boy's Life is definitely worthwhile. Its a wonderful showcase of emotion for Leonardo DiCaprio. Shows you what a great actor he can be when given the right material to work with. And its a surprisingly complex portrait of a thug who felt misrepresented all his life.

Concrete, Washington is the setting for this adaptation of Tobias Woolf's memoir, 'This Boy's Life'; and Robert de Niro is the step-dad from hell, a man incapable of standing any competition in any aspect of life. But it's a fairly standard coming-of-age drama, with a vaguely nostalgic air, heavy on the period details. De Niro's character should be either frightening or funny, but in the end comes across as merely pathetic: the eventual realisation of this by the other characters provides the pivot to the story but unfortunately we, the audience, realise this much sooner than they do. Perhaps the problem is that, 45 years ago, behaviour such as his was normal, so today we struggle to relate to it as people would then: we can't understand why the more "heroic" characters tolerate it. But another part of the problem is that the memoir format hampers the story from living in the here and now: we know the author (played here by Leonardo Di Caprio) survived, and became a famous writer to boot, so it's hard to impart a sense of life or death urgency to what we see; the happy ending after the hardship is booked in advance. Finally, the story's eventual resolution seems semi-random: this may have been how it happened, but when the boy wins a school scholarship there's been little before to indicate that this might happen. The result is a dull tale, which is a shame: with a little more immediacy, and a little less comfortable framing, the struggle between de Niro and di Caprio could have been great.

I remember renting this film from my library in college, I was most likely attracted because of the leading stars, I'm glad I watched it a second time, I remember liking it, but I could acknowledge it properly as being based on a true story, directed by Michael Caton- Jones (Rob Roy, The Jackal, Basic Instinct 2). Basically set in the 1950s, Caroline Wolff (Ellen Barkin) and her young Tobias "Toby", who wants to go by the name Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), have fled the East to escape her abusive boyfriend, the find a new life and settle in Seattle, Washington. Caroline then meets seemingly respectable garage mechanic Dwight Hansen (Robert De Niro), Toby is weary of the new man in his mother's life, but she thinks she has found the perfect man. However Dwight shows his true personality to Toby when he is separated from his mother for a few months, staying with Dwight and his other children, Dwight claims he wants to help Toby become a better man, but he emotionally, verbally and physically abuses the boy to do so. Caroline agrees to marry Dwight, but she also slowly recognises Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him, despite some abuse herself she decides to remain with Dwight, and many years of dysfunction ensue. Toby meanwhile makes friends with misfit and ambiguously gay Arthur Gayle (Jonah Blechman), while continuing to suffer the torment of his repressive stepfather. Toby hopes to leave Concrete and live with his older brother Gregory, so he decides to apply for a scholarship at an East Coast prep-school, realising his grades are not good enough to attend, he falsifies his grade reports, with the help of Arthur to get the papers. Toby submits the his prep-school applications, and assures Arthur he can also leave Concrete for a better life, Arthur says he will most likely stay, Toby is rejected numerous times, but is finally accepted, with a full scholarship, by the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. By the end, Dwight and Toby have a physically violent argument, Caroline comes in and defends her son, she finally realises she has had enough of the misery Dwight has brought upon them, she and Toby walk out on Dwight, leaving the town of Concrete. The real Dwight died in 1992, Caroline remarried and moved to Florida, Arthur did leave Concrete, becoming a successful businessman in Italy, all of Dwight's children married and remained in Seattle, and Toby became a successful writer and literature professor. Also starring True Lies' Eliza Dushku as Pearl Hansen, Chris Cooper as Roy, Carla Gugino as Norma Hansen, Zachary Ansley as Skipper Hansen, Tracey Ellis as Kathy, Kathy Kinney as Marian, Tobey Maguire as Chuck Bolger, Sean Murray as Jimmy Voorhees, Lee Wilkof as Principal Skippy and Bill Dow as Vice Principal. De Niro gives an impressive performance as the frightening, tyrannical thug, even if sometimes he is a faintly absurd bully, Barkin is good as the struggling mother, but it is indeed DiCaprio that gives the best performance as the rebellious, confused and abused teenager, it is a troubling story about an abusive relationship, obviously there are a good few brutal moments, but it leaves room for quirky humour, an interesting and worthwhile melodramatic biographical drama. Leonardo DiCaprio was number 94, and Robert De Niro number 3 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, De Niro was also number 50 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and he was number 5 (along with Al Pacino) on The World's Greatest Actor. Very good!