'BOY A' TACKLES ADULT ISSUES WITH SENSITIVITY.

Byline: Bob Strauss

Film Critic

"Boy A" is based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell, which itself seems inspired by a sensational murder case that had the British tabloids in a tizzy some years back. The film, made by the "Intermission" director-writer team of John Crowley and Mark O'Rowe, imagines what life could be like for a young man who, after paying his debt for a terrible childhood crime, tries to start his life again.

Andrew Garfield's open-wound performance as the rehabilitated but understandably awkward Jack Burridge really earns audience sympathy.

Flashbacks show how the meek little boy that he was -- Jack is an assumed name that he had to choose on release from prison -- was pretty much led by a psychotic, domineering friend into committing the dastardly deed. Now 24, Jack is genuinely sweet and decent, and even heroic. Ironically, he saves a young girl's life, which even more ironically leads to his undoing.

With only his caseworker, Terry (the wonderful Scottish actor Peter Mullan), knowing his true past, Jack establishes strong friendships with co-workers at a delivery company and embarks on a touching, nourishing romance with the firm's secretary, Michelle (Katie Lyons).

Their lovemaking is some of the most fraught and tender ever filmed, and it makes Jack's longing to tell Michelle -- or somebody -- his real story palpably agonizing. Terry forbids it, of course, knowing what the consequences of confiding in even the most trusted companion could be. The papers, after all, are screaming for blood in 120-point headlines, if they could only find out where the released child-monster is hiding.

Perhaps Jack's case is made too sensitively, and considering his life experience, he wouldn't be as swell a guy as Garfield presents him. Yet it's a thoroughly persuasive performance, with the character's pain and hope so intimately, thoughtfully intertwined that there's really no need to make room for deeper dysfunctions.

Those who would charge "Boy A" with coddling criminals miss the film's larger point: that there's something terribly wrong with a culture that goads people to hate for the self-righteous thrill of it -- whether the subject of their wrath has redeemed himself or not, or might even be someone they once loved and admired.

Bob Strauss [phone]

[e-mail]

BOY A - Three stars

>R: violence, nudity, sex, language, drug use, children in peril.

>Starring: Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Katie Lyons, Shaun Evans, Taylor Doherty.

>Director: John Crowley.

>Running time: 1 hr. 40 min.

>Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

>In a nutshell: Sensitive portrait of a young man's efforts to reintegrate into society after committing a horrible crime as a child.

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(color) Katie Lyons and Andrew Garfield star in the sensitive portrayal of a young man trying to integrate back into society after a horrific crime he committed as a child in "Boy A."