a state of catharsis

First of all, bear in mind that this is not a professional review. In fact it’s nowhere near a review, this is more like a comment. I have to admit that I have no capacity to evaluate the score, plot, cinematography and stuffs. But I promise you’re not gonna read something from a person who thinks that Twilight was the best movie ever made. So you can pretty much count on this.

Who decides who gets a second chance?

What brought me to the whole movie was that tagline. (Seriously, not the fact that Andrew Garfield is the lead actor and happens to be involved in some hot scenes, NO. Well, fuck.. okay, that was part of the reason. Come on! Like you don’t like those stuffs yourselves.)

I haven’t been watching a lot of good movies since The Avengers (my standards have been raised ever since). I’m not sure if it’s me who watched not enough good movies or suddenly all of them are just practically boring. It’s just nothing has ever come close to that feeling when I watch The Avengers, until last night, when it turns out that Boy A exceeds my expectation.

Just like what I wrote in my twitter, this movie is about an endeavor to make good use of a second chance, to be as decent as someone could ever possibly be. And it’s aching how it all means nothing just because your past mistakes outshine them.

It is aching how you’re never going to be good enough for the world if you had been a monster once. No matter how hard you try to fix it. Even if you try to be kinder than any angels in heaven. People will always judge you based on your past. Even after they’ve invented a saying that says “Your past has nothing to do with your future”. And it throttles me even more that I am one of those hypocrites.

Eric Wilson (Alfie Owen) was a neglected child, had no friends, bullied, and ended up being friends with a bad influenced prick. Eric is basically a lost kid. He had no one decent enough to look up to. The crime he and his only friend committed costs him being sent away. Now that he’s out of jail, he just wanted to start over as a complete new guy named Jack Burridge (Garfield). With the help from his counselor, Terry (Peter Mullan) he started to gain some trusts from his new environment. But, yeah shit happens. It all seems fine until it’s not.

See, all he ever need is trust, being given a ‘sincere’ second chance, not just half-assed one. Even in the beginning of the movie, it clearly shows that he has self esteem issues, he doesn’t believe in himself that he deserves to be loved or ever going to have ‘i love you’ said to him. Don’t you just want to hug this delicate creature and forget what he has done wrong in the past? This movie acts like an eye opener to me. To teach me not to judge too early and to spread more love and less suspicion.

Favorite scene: the kind-hearted letter from Catherine Thompson.