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The
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
review by Carrie Gorringe, 21 June 2002
28th Seattle International Film
Festival With the Catholic
Church currently facing landmark sexual-abuse lawsuits, it might
have seemed somewhat inappropriate to release a film with the
provocative title, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, but
this story, adapted from Chris Fuhrman's first and only novel,
explores different issues. Set in the early 70's, Dangerous
revolves around a group of boys led by Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin)
and his ever-loyal friend Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch). The boys,
possessing considerable talent, illustrate their own comic books,
under the title of "Atomic Trilogy," with three superheroes who
fight off the vicious villain "Nun-Zilla". The source of their
creativity is clear-cut: both Tim and Francis are caught within
Catholic families that are both emotionally repressed and perilously
close to collapse. Moreover, they must deal with their own "nun-zilla",
Sister Assumpta: (Jodie Foster, in a performance so excessively
mannered that it borders upon inadvertent parody), who seems to take
an absolute (if perhaps unrealized) delight in denying her charges
any sort of pleasure under the guise that it will corrupt their
souls. Caught between both impenetrable worlds, in an era in which
moral guidance was a difficult, if not impossible, concept to
define, the boys retreat into their own private existence, and plot
to pull off a daring raid that will raise their status with their
fellow students. Tim and Francis soon discover, however, that the
line between derring-do and risk may be as ambiguously defined as
everything else in their lives.
As the center of the piece Culkin
and especially Hirsch give evocative performances that honestly
capture the fact that, underneath all their bravado, lies two
children crying out for acceptance and guidance. The animated
sequences (brilliantly crafted by Todd McFarlane, he of the
comic-book series, Spawn) that punctuate the main action are
powerful, and accurately breathe life into the boys' comic-book
images, acting as the boys' alter egos -- a counterpart to their
impotence within their own lives. Director Peter Case sensitively
encapsulates the contradictory elements within Tim and Francis'
lives -- their first loves, their triumphs and miseries -- and
displays them in a form that doesn't dismiss their struggles as
simply the insubstantial whining of "typical" teenagers. Case evokes
a version of the past that has the feel of authenticity about it.
Although the film treats the tragi-comic elements of the boys'
relationship with tenderness, the film is not an exercise in
nostalgia; the harsh effects of reality that can limit Tim and
Francis' dreams are never far away. The film also works because it
doesn't treat the other elements of the boys' world as mere ciphers:
it's clear that everyone and everything else, from parents to the
Catholic church itself, is struggling to do the right thing even if,
like the boys themselves, the solutions aren't always clear or the
outcomes inappropriate and/or inadequate. This two-pronged approach
places Dangerous far above other films in the "coming of age" film
genre.
Seattle International Film Festival
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