BOY
A touching, winsome story that is not for children.
Should You Watch It?
BOY is funny, winsome, and emotionally sincere. Its story of a teenager caring for younger children while trying to understand his absent father has touching moments, and its ending is uplifting even though it remains open-ended.
The film also asks adults to accept substantial content. Its language is gratuitous and often rough. A lewd line is repeated by the young protagonist. Alcohol, drunkenness, marijuana, family dysfunction, and violence are part of the story. Those elements will turn off viewers looking for more family-friendly material.
If you are a discerning adult willing to weigh those concerns against the film’s warmth and moral movement, BOY is worth seeing. For children and young teens, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn 1984, on New Zealand’s east coast, a young teenager nicknamed Boy cares for his younger brother, Rocky, and four cousins while their grandmother attends a funeral. Boy and Rocky use fantasy to make their difficult life bearable.
Then their absent father returns after seven years away. Boy idolizes him, but the father is not the hero Boy imagined. When the father enlists Boy’s help recovering buried robbery money, the family must begin facing reality.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means BOY is a good but imperfect film. It is a quirky, winsome comedy with dramatic moments, and its touching, uplifting ending gives the family’s story emotional weight.
The film’s strongest moments are endearing and morally hopeful. Its open-ended conclusion leaves the characters still somewhat lost, which fits the story’s movement toward growing up rather than offering a simple resolution. The rough language, lewd dialogue, and drug-related subplot, however, weaken its appeal for mainstream and family audiences.
The Worldview
BOY presents a strong pagan, slightly mixed, winsome worldview about a family of romantic dreamers. Fantasy helps the characters endure loss, but reality gradually forces them to grow up. The movie includes redemptive and moral elements, especially in the family’s movement toward resolving conflict.
“Amazing Grace” is heard in Maori during one of the film’s uplifting moments. That gives the story a slightly redemptive take on grief and loss, but the film is not specifically Christian. Its moral movement is grounded more in family relationships, reality, and emotional growth than in explicit faith.
The film’s central longing is for healing in a wounded family. Scripture says, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong pagan, slightly mixed, winsome worldview and tone about a family of Romantic dreamers with some redemptive, moral elements, including “Amazing Grace” is heard during one of the movie’s uplifting moments near the end; 47 mostly strong obscenities (more than half are “f” words) and zero profanities; violence includes teenage girl has bruises on face that implies her father hit her, teenage boys scuffle and fight, father threatens son’s bullies, father and two sons play pretend war, marijuana dealer and two friends beat up protagonist’s father; crude but brief sexual references, including an intended comical bit where ne’er-do-well father crudely tells young teenage son it’s okay to indulge in foreplay with a girl but don’t get her pregnant and boy repeats it to girl he’s interested in, but she’s shocked and angrily walks out of car where they were talking; upper male nudity in several scenes and real male nudity in one scene; alcohol use and some drunkenness; smoking and comical and dramatic references to using and selling marijuana but events surrounding it seem to send a negative message about it; and, young protagonist is bullied, ex-con father employs son to dig up stolen money he buried, boy finds stolen money but doesn’t tell father and boy’s pet goat ends up eating the stolen money, father brags to sons, dysfunctional family elements, and two boys and their father indulge in fantasy, which is played for laughs, but reality forces them to grow up at least a little.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The characters use fantasy to cope with loss and hardship. When can imagination help us endure difficulty, and when can it keep us from facing the truth?
Psalm 139:23–24 · Ephesians 4:25How can a family begin healing when a parent has been absent and trust has been damaged?
Ephesians 4:31–32 · Colossians 3:12–13The story connects growing up with facing reality. What does Christian maturity look like in everyday life?
1 Corinthians 13:11 · James 1:22“Amazing Grace” appears during a moment connected with loss. How can grief and hope exist together?
Psalm 34:18 · Romans 15:13The Final Word
BOY is a winsome, touching comedy with real moral warmth, but its language, nudity, drug subplot, and dysfunctional family elements make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For a family-friendly alternative, see.
