The film hasn’t got enough in it to sustain anywhere near its 90-plus minute runtime. I felt that it could have been a short documentary (which now seem to pop up at festivals as a sort of experiment in filmmaking) that lasts no more than a half hour. There are a lot of scenes there that definitely should have been taken out in the editing process; for instance, we see the boys make their beds and tidy their rooms about four or five times throughout the movie, with no reason for the inane repetition.
All throughout it just seemed like it meandered its way along with little worthwhile scenes/moments and by the end it all seemed like it lacked a substantial point. It does say at one point that over ninety percent of these boys will end up in a real, adult prison when they are older and I guess you could see that’s an important point but by the time we get to that I pretty much had already realized that’s what they were ultimately going to say. So when it finally does tell us that I just thought, “And?”
The film was noticeably underwhelming. It had the potential for some very powerful filmmaking, and in all honesty I think this would have been much better as a fictional/dramatised film, but instead it tends to play things very low-key for some reason. The end sequence feels like it wants you to have some sort of emotional revelation that is supposed to hit you hard and leave you thinking about it after it’s over. But again, it just didn’t have the desired affect.
I think this is the first documentary that I have not liked. Alone in Four Walls was a big disappointment for me; it plainly just bored the hell out of me. I can’t remember the last time I looked at my watch as much in a cinema — and that is never a good sign.
Article comments
1 - frank
wow - you didn't get this film at all. Yes it was understated and subtle, but everyone I saw coming out of the cinema at the Cambridge Film Festival showing of this was highly impressed and quite deeply moved by the film. Did you not think that maybe the 'inane' repetition of the boys making their beds may be meant to reflect the routine and regiment of the boy's 2+ years in the institution? I thought it was a powerful and moving film - one of the best films at this years festival in my opinion.
2 - Bren
I absolutely loved this film. It moved me to find that most of these boys have it better in that institution than they had it at home. I found it sad, beautiful, and powerful.