Date: 11/6/2009 TO 11/12/2009
Time:

Salina Art Center & Cinema
150 S. Santa Fe
Salina, KS 67402

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Event Description: Rated PG-13 for some sexual language and thematic elements - 104 min. Sportswriter Joe Warr (Clive Owen) is an expatriate Englishman who lives and works as a sportswriter in Australia; he's a workaholic and a kind but mostly absentee father, frequently away from his wife Katy (Laura Fraser) and six-year-old son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). When Katy dies suddenly of cancer, Joe is left alone with a boy he barely understands and doesn't know how to comfort. With zero parenting skills, he tries to be his son's buddy, adpoting a "laissez-faire" approach to parental supervision that borders on negligence. Complicating matters is the arrival of Harry (George McKay), his teenage son from a previous marriage, who comes to stay with Joe and Artie for the summer. This isn't one of those comedies where Dad is a life force who offers fun and frivolity without consequences; in this more grounded, realistic depiction, Joe's parenting doesn't work that well.

"The Boys Are Back" is actually a demand for maturity and acceptance of adult responsiblities--and it might be a veiled demand for more maturity and "adult" content in today's comedy-dramas; bolstered by the performance of Clive Owen, this excellent, intelligent film makes good on that promise.


Directions:

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