THE NEW BOY – Review by T. J. Callahan
The New Boy: “ We haven’t been struck down by lightning yet.”
Cate Blanchett is back, but she doesn’t have a Black Bag, only the black habit of a nun who runs a monastery and orphanage on the Australian outback in The New Boy.
Blanchett is Sister Eileen. She’s charged with “ breeding out the black” of young, parentless aboriginal boys and turning them towards the white man’s Christianity. She is a God-fearing woman who believes she is doing the Lord’s work, but when a new boy is dumped on her doorstep in the middle of the night, he tests everyone in the monastery’s faith.
Set in the 1940’s during World War II, The New Boy stars newcomer Reid Aswan as the 9 year old wild child found trying to survive in the desert when he was scooped up by police and delivered to the mission. He has no name, he doesn’t speak, he can’t read or write, but it’s soon learned he possesses magical powers. He’s a medicine man in a land of lost souls. Instead of embracing the young man’s flicker of light, the spark he brings scares Sister Eileen and threatens her Catholic conviction.
The New Boy isn’t a religious film, but it’s about religion and its effect on people. It’s about the clash of faith and a past culture and how organized spirituality can change lives. The film is loosely based on a time in the life of award winning Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton. Thornton wrote, directed and was the cinematographer on New Boy, a screenplay that took 18 years to evolve. You can tell it was a passion project just through the lens of the camera. Thornton has an eye for capturing the subtle beauty in all things.
Quiet and thoughtful, The New Boy has little dialogue. Expressions, scenery and the score tell the tale. All the orphaned boys in the film are first time actors. Reid’s ability to straddle the line between angel and devil just through looks and body language is remarkable. Beloved Australian actress Deborah Mailman is the gentle monastery caretaker, Sister Mum. Wayne Blair is George, the mission’s steward. As Sister Eileen, Blanchett is more subdued than her usual boisterous characters, but she’s still headstrong and manages to convey the struggle of the time as the rather renegade nun.
The New Boy forces the viewer to be more introspective as they watch the film. There are a lot of ideas swirling around, but they don’t get examined enough in the just under 2 hour fantasy drama. It’s CliffsNotes cataclysm. The New Boy is a sparse story about sparse lives exploring the existence of all faiths. It reaches a somewhat mesmerizing 6 on the TeejFlixometer.
