The Butcher Boy

The Butcher Boy (1997)
a film by Neil Jordan

This movie is a great finding. I didn't know it and when I found it I didn't have any idea of what to expect. It is a great story full of the darkest sense of humour and a vertiginous narrative.

I think it is accurate to say that I haven't seen a movie like this before. It features the vibrant narrative and stream of conscious of Francie Brady, the memorable character of a boy whose world continuously falls apart and retreats in to a violent fantasy world which provide the movie with a great mixture of vitality and dark humour. The performance of Eamonn Owens as Francie Brady is amazing.

Many times during this movie I found myself expecting it to drift into an endless drama, but it never cease to turn ludicrous. The main character and the great soundtrack kept the story fresh and even when there are moments in which the misfortune and the desolation seem endless it manages to keep the mixture of seriousness and absurdity that make it so original, driving you on the edge of laughter and shock.

This is the darkest comedy, at moments I didn't know if what I was watching was drifting in to insanity and often I found myself shocked by the unexpected situations in which this movie put me. It is a hard cocktail of sweetness, sadness and schizophrenia.