We have seen child actors and their characters grow up
before our eyes – from Ricky Nelson to Fred Savage to the kids of Modern Family. Michael Apted’s Seven-up documentaries have followed real-life
children well into adulthood at seven-year intervals. Linklater’s “Before”
trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset,
Before Midnight) charts a relationship with the same actors roughly a
decade apart over three films. But there has never been a film with the
patience and commitment to follow a character’s growth to adulthood using the
same actor in real time, and compress it into a single feature-length film.
There are no contrived crises in the film. There is no
continuing plot, other than growing up. The film’s naturalism gives it the
effect of a cinéma vérité
documentary, as if An American Family
had been filmed over more than a decade. This gives the film an intimacy that
creates a powerful viewer bond. The intimacy is enhanced by Linklater’s casting
of his daughter Lorelei in the role of Mason’s older sister. I don’t think a more accurate depiction of sibling relationships has ever been filmed.
But the universal is found in the particular, and the narrow
longitudinal focus of the film raises deeper questions about American (and
particularly Texan) assumptions about what is meant by “becoming a man,” as
well as the effect our adult decisions and behaviors have on our children. The
film takes aim at the problems created by our identification of alcohol use
with adulthood, without being preachy or melodramatic.
Linklater both loves and understands his native state, and
the film is shot with both a sense of place and a reverence for its geography.
Having traveled widely in the state this past year, I found in the film a sense
of recognition that did not devolve into caricature. Even a brief scene in a
rural Texas church service rang true without mocking.
The acting in the principal roles is first rate, which I
hope will be recognized at Oscar time, particularly for Coltrane, Arquette, and
Ethan Hawke (who plays Mason Sr.). As is typical of Linklater films. the music
score is spot-on with soundtrack selections that provide a sense of time,
place, and character development.
Earlier this summer, we were given the tear-jerker coming of
age film The Fault in our Stars. In Boyhood, we have a real-time coming-of-age film, in which the tears flow from the pain and beauty of an
ordinary life. At one point in the film, a character comments, “People always
say ‘seize the moment,’ but I think it’s more like the moments seize us.” In Boyhood, Linklater has presented a
sequence of moments over the course of a childhood that are arresting in their
poignancy. For those who want plot and action, the film may seem slow; but like
childhood itself, if you bear with it you will be rewarded. A masterpiece. 4.0 stars out of 4.0.
