The Butcher Boy (1997)

Director: Neil Jordan
Writer: Pat McCabe (novel), with Neil Jordan (screenplay)

Set in Ireland during the 1960s, Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens) is the kid "from the wrong side of the tracks." Francie lives with his alcoholic father and troubled mother (Stephen Rea and Aisling O'Sullivan), is best friends with Joe Purcell (Alan Boyle), and told from the point of view of an older Francie.

Here's how I described this film to my fellow cinephile Terri: "a brilliant, feverdream of a movie…imagine if The 400 Blows was set in Ireland and Antoine acted like Alex from A Clockwork Orange...and then went off the deep end." The plot is assembled with a collection of vignettes narrated by an older Francie. He's a pre-adolescent antihero, the ultimate "bad influence" who has positiones himself against everyone in town, especially Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw). There are several changes that occur at once in his life: the Cold War, his father's extreme alcoholism, his mother's disturbed mental state, and his disintegrating friendship with Joe. Francie is stuck in a frame of mind before these events transpire which only causes more tension between him and his town. He cannot wrap his mind around his parents' dysfunctions or Joe's befriending of Phillip Nugent, Francie's favorite punching bag.

The film oscillates between darkly comic and heartbreaking. The juxtaposition between the older Francie's narration and the scenes over which he speaks constantly remind the audience that his memory of events and what actually transpires are quite different. The strongest example of this is after a party for Francie's Uncle Alo. Francie's dad, twelve sheets to the wind, criticizes Alo for not pursuing a particular woman when they were younger and how Alo still regrets his mistake. Francie's voiceover about it being his time for bed drowns out the argument and makes light of Francie's impromptu sojourn to Dublin as his father beats his mother. The levity of the voiceover makes the tragic events of young Francie's life all the more damaging to the spectator.

Neil Jordan plays with the audience's emotions in this fashion but never to the point of pushing them away. If anything, the back-and-forth nature of the drama and comedy makes the story that much more endearing. The viewer starts wondering, "what's Francie going to do next?" As with any effective antihero, we begin to root for Francie to really stick it to all the "Mrs. Nugents" of the world. Like The 400 Blows (1959) nearly four decades before it, watching The Butcher Boy gives me the urge to go out and get into all sorts of trouble.