While not rising to the status of first rate, Boys Are Back is interesting and worth seeing.

| Jan 17, 2018

Owen reveals a rarely glimpsed warmth and the father and son dynamic has charm, but sappiness keeps the film nice, rather than as good as it might have been.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 22, 2010

Hicks's directing style is straightforward and unfussy - a description you could apply to this big-hearted film as a whole.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 22, 2010

Aggressively life-affirming, unashamedly sentimental and tear-jerking with industrial efficiency.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 22, 2010

If you could order a heart-tugging movie about a widower single dad from the Boden catalogue, accessorised with emotional moments purchased online at johnlewis.com, it might look like this excruciatingly artificial and prettified film.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 22, 2010

Hicks's hand with these relationships is more than sure enough to guide this unexpectedly observant movie over its occasional rough spots.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 22, 2010

The Boys Are Back strains admirably against the stereotypes which tend to weigh down such tales of the expected.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 22, 2010

The film is a convincing portrait of the stress of single parenthood. Owen does well in a tricky role. I could watch him all day, and after The Boys Are Back, I felt like I had.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 22, 2010

Owen's voiceover is a cringeworthy accompaniment on the film's heavily signposted road to redemptive hugs and Joe's tentative romance with a divorcee. Bereavement is a valid starting-point, but this really gives the healing process a bad name.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 22, 2010

Possibly too sentimental for some. But if you're interested in the psychology of parenting, or just fancy a good old blub, it's well worth a watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 22, 2010

The Boys Are Back is frightened of being frightening and, as a result, has no sense of momentum.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 22, 2010

What follows is a string of reasonably interesting ups and downs, with no clear overall plot to thread them together. It's kind of pretty good, ish.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 22, 2010

This beautifully etched, deeply moving drama about single fatherhood [is] the best film Adelaide director Scott Hicks has made since Shine -- and the peak of Clive Owen's acting career

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 12, 2009

There's a lot to like about the film. Hicks makes evocative use of the Fleurieu Peninsula's hills and coastline to impart some magic to Joe's attempts to turn life with his sons in to a Boys' Own adventure.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 9, 2009

If The Boys Are Back takes some emotional shortcuts, it still manages to convey some of the more mystifying aspects of parenthood.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 14, 2009

A classy, intelligent, low-key affair and a fine reminder of what's really essential to most lives: family.

| Original Score: B | Oct 9, 2009

It manages to veer from touching to humorous (Warr has some rather unconventional parenting techniques) without being overly mawkish, and the sumptuous cinematography by Greig Fraser is perhaps the best commercial ever for South Australia.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 9, 2009

The Boys Are Back is based on a true story, and not in a good way. It's obviously true; otherwise why would anyone think it's worth telling a story so trivial?

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 9, 2009

Relationships -- between men and women, fathers and sons -- are more complicated in real life, and The Boys Are Back deftly acknowledges that fact.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 8, 2009

Clive Owen was spared the role of James Bond. And The Boys are Back is an example of why we are all the better for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 2, 2009