The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (18 January 2002)
directed by Peter Care
starring Emile Hirsch, Kieran Culkin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jena Malone, Jake Richardson, Tyler Long, Jodie Foster, Michael Harding
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MPAA rating: Studio: Initial Entertainment Group, Trilogy Entertainment Group, Egg Pictures Script: Jeff Stockwell, Michael Petroni Based on the book by: Chris Fuhrman Music: Marco Beltrami, Tom Hiel Running time: 104 minutes Tags: Animation; Catholic church; comic books; coming-of-age; Drama; drug use; first love; incest; mauling; mountain lions; novel adaptation; private schools Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for language, sexual content and youth substance use
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys follows the exploits of Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch) and Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin), Catholic altar boys who attend the local parish school. Tim seems obsessed with causing grief for one strict teacher in particular, Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster), who clomps around the classroom due to a prosthetic leg. Francis pretty much follows Tim's lead, but starts to drift apart as he falls in love with schoolmate Margie (Jena Malone). The boys, with two other friends, enjoy comic books and have plans to make a comic book of their own, "The Atomic Trinity." The characters have adolescent fantasy names such as "The Muscle," "Skeleton Boy," and "Captain Asskicker." Francis draws most of the comics, which frequently features the abuse and mutilation of Sister Assumpta cast as "Nunzilla."
As Francis imagines the adventures of the Atomic Trinity, the movie cuts over to fully realized animation of the episodes. As events happen to Francis and his friends, we see these events reflected in the characters in the animated story line. When Francis and Margie seem about to break up over a dark secret Margie tells Francis, the character representing Margie in the comic gets stabbed and drops unconscious. As the relationship resumes, Francis's character goes to great lengths to save Margie's character. The plot could have done without the animation, but it does give advanced notice as Francis's attitude toward various characters shifts.
The movie adapts a novel by Chris Fuhrman, and you gave to give praise to first-time director Peter Care for taking a realistic view of adolescence. And perhaps because Care takes such risks, the movie has some problems. I haven't read the book, but the movie appears to have a lot of holes that the book probably explains. At one point Tim starts to cry when he cannot save an injured dog on the side of the road. Francis tell Tim, "Get real. The dog's dead." Tim replies, "Don't you ever tell me to get real. I know what f***ing real is, okay." We infer that Tim has lost a close family member or has severe family problems, but the movie never gives any background to why Tim acts out or even to the cast for a broken wrist.
The story seems somewhat biographical and clearly takes place in the early 1970s, but I don't see the reason for the effort at setting the film in that time frame. The issues the movie deals with relate to any coming-of-age story and could just have easily occurred last week. Furhman's book probably makes the setting more critical, but if I were to have made this movie, I probably would have used a contemporary setting just to avoid having to acquire all the steel beer cans the kids drank from. Even the few drug culture references would still have worked in a contemporary film and would have avoided many of the anachronisms, such as comic books and cars from the 1980s appearing in various shots. Also, the animated story shows obvious use of computer animation, which would not have been available in the 1970s.
Another problem occurs with the poetry of William Blake. Tim has a copy of a large hardcover book with the title page from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. glued to the cover. Blake's actual work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell only has about twenty-four pages of material, not the hundreds that the tome Tim carries around would indicate. Tim's book has the right size for the collected works of Blake, but the movie specifically refers to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Also, Francis later reads a poem from the same book, and he reads "Tyger, Tyger," which comes from Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. A little research would have benefited the verisimilitude during scenes involving Blake's poetry.
The younger members of the cast do an excellent job portraying their characters. Jodie Foster does a fine job at portraying a Catholic nun, but she mysteriously has an Irish accent in the first scene and never seems to have one after that. And, finally we have a film where Vincent D'Onofrio doesn't play a neurotic or a psycho. Here he plays the parish priest and gym teacher in the parish high school. D'Onofrio doesn't have too serious a role, but he does convincingly coach soccer and give typical priestly bad advice to a teenage boy about "mortal sins."
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys tells a touching story that really captures the essence of growing up as a teenage boy in a staunch Catholic family, and in spite of all the anachronisms, I found the movie completely engaging.
P.S. I have subsequently read Chris Fuhrman's book, and you can find some comparisons between the book and the film in my review of the book.
Related Review
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys written by Chris Fuhrman
