This Boy’s Life (1993)

Title: This Boy’s Life

Year: 1993

Genre: Biography | Drama |

Runtime: 94 min

Director: Michael Caton-Jones

Starring: Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Barkin

7.3/10

The story about the relationship between a rebellious 1950s teenager and his abusive stepfather, based on the memoirs of writer and literature Professor Tobias Wolff.

A STRONG COMING-OF-AGE STORY

Leonardo Dicaprio are an american actor who shows up in good films but few of his roles is that brilliant. He has had a variety of credits career and while he’s just 50 next year 2024. Problem is that he never ages. Still he has a baby face and still regarded as our most best actors who really has his own style of acting.

Thirty years back, he starred as a 18 year old boy in the drama-adaptation of Toby Wolff memoir This Boy’s Life from 1993 which details Toby/Jack young adulthood and how his relationship to his mother evolves with different men during the roaring 1950s America. One key person in mother Carol relationship is Dwight who is played by Robert De Niro. Interesting, this is one of the first collabs between Robert and Leo.

It’s not really Leonardo best role. That’s a solid between Inception or The Wolf of Wall Street but here, in this feature, it’s the mother who stands out. She has a free will, cares for her son and tries to find a steady spot in her life. Ellen Berkins portrayal as Carol that lifts the first acts. Sure, Leo is decent in this film but doesn’t deliver the same aura he manages to achieve later on.

Dwight, Robert De Niro, Toby’s new provocative stepfather pulls the boy straight after all the demeanor Toby has done. He corrects him and threathens that he will break every bone in the body if he keeps doing his stuff. De Niro rocks on as ever before. The 1970s and the 1990s was clearly his best decade. He does it rough and it affect the boy and the mother in their deep wounds after the divorce.

There’s few tender moment in the film that deepens the characters connects in a meaningful way. It’s always a road trip or a move to a different state that prevents it from happening. It’s suppose to take olace in the 1950s but few details are convincing to take place in that era.

It’s a film that has it high and lowes, mostly because Leo feels so odd i some scenes but adds some emotional weight to the story. The best part is the focus ln the small cast ensemble that’s allows the character to evolve. A drama-film that doesn’t stands out but delivers on the poignant bits.