The Boys Are Back

2009

104 mins

Directed by Allan Cubitt
73%
61%
Drama

When Joe’s (Clive Owen) wife tragically passes away, he finds himself both grieving and in the throes of single parenthood.... More

When Joe’s (Clive Owen) wife tragically passes away, he finds himself both grieving and in the throes of single parenthood. Joe throws himself into the only child-rearing philosophy he thinks has a shot at bringing joy back into their lives: "just says yes". Raising his two boys - a curious six year-old and a rebellious teen - in a household devoid of rules, life becomes exuberant, instinctual, reckless, and on the constant verge of disaster.

Shot in South Australia, The Boys are Back is from the director of Shine and based on the 2001 memoir by Simon Carr.

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Where to watch The Boys Are Back

The Boys Are Back is available to stream in New... More Zealand now on YouTube and Lionsgate+ on Prime.

There is no screening information for this title.

The Boys Are Back | Ratings & Reviews

73_%120 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
61_%21,910 reviews
Audience score rating

"This is polished yet authentically moving."

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Variety

"Clive Owen stars as Joe, a wise cracking sports journalist and absentee father (due to work) in south Australia."

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TVNZ

"Few films have so poignantly portrayed a father's relationships with his sons as The Boys Are Back."

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Hollywood Reporter

"When male film stars play yummy widowers with winsome children they normally find themselves a ditzy nanny and end up walking into the sunset as part of a wholesome regrouped nuclear family."

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Otago Daily Times

"The Boys Are Back is a bit like the parenting it portrays -- at times there is pain, mistakes will be made, but if you can get beyond that, there is pleasure to be found."

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Los Angeles Times

"A few weeks back ago, Graeme Mason, the new head of our film commission, put a bit of a breeze up the undies of the people who care about such things, when he said that "drama" was now really no more than an "arthouse" genre."

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Dominion Post

"Clive Owen can be a likable actor, but the character is working against him...And please, please, give us a break from the scenes where the ghost of the departed turns up and starts talking as if she's not dead."

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