The Boys

The Boys has been based on a stage play by Gordon Graham which was inspired, (is inspired the right word?) by the awful Anita Cobby murder some years ago in Sydney. Stephen Sewel has written a blistering screenplay to match the play and first time director Rowan Woods has excelled.

David Wenham who stars as Brett Sprague in the film also starred in the stage version.

We first meet Brett as he's getting out of prison after a year inside for grievous bodily harm. Brother Stevie ( Anthony Hayes) picks him up and takes him home to Mum (Lynette Curran, a fine performance), girlfriend Michelle (Toni Collette), brother Glenn (John Polson) and Glen's wife Jackie (Jeanette Cronin).

Then there's poor Nola, pregnant to Stevie, who wanders soullessly about the house just waiting for disaster.

Their Western Suburbs of Sydney brick veneer bungalow then becomes the scene for tirade of swearing, drinking, domestic abuse and visits from the police. We see a series of flash forwards and know that something terrible will happen.

There's an almost continuous, metallic, machine like, disturbing hum lurking somewhere behind the events as they unfold, which engender an unrelenting tension hiding, waiting. This isn't a squeamish film.

Those who enjoy violence in film will probably be disappointed by The Boys though, because the violence is strongly hinted, rather than portrayed. The Boys isn't any sort of splatter movie.

Those who want blood should stay home and live out your own sick fantasies with your own poor victims I suppose. I especially refer to those insensitive bastards at the showing I attended, both male and female, who found the three brothers and the treatment of the women around them funny! But perhaps I'm just showing how insensitive I am.

I'm not sure if the rest of you should go to see The Boys, but if you do be prepared for a mental bloodbath.