The Mudge Boy (R, 2004)
Netflix Synopsis: Duncan (Emile Hirsch) is a 14-year-old boy who’s always been labeled the “weird” one. When Duncan’s mother unexpectedly dies, he takes a bizarre interest in her clothing and starts to speak in her voice. His father (Richard Jenkins) doesn’t understand his son’s conduct, and all the kids poke fun at him. When Duncan befriends a group of older boys by buying them beer, he discovers that one of them, Perry (Tom Guiry), has dark secrets of his own.
Review: When Duncan Mudge’s mother dies, it’s not just that his father is unprepared for being a single parent. He’s unprepared to be a parent at all, Duncan’s mother having been the caretaker for them all. And Duncan isn’t an easy child to understand – as if having an ever present pet chicken isn’t enough to make him a social misfit in his small community, there’s a lot of physical and intellectual gawkiness going on. In an attempt to make friends and bond with Perry, Duncan buys his way into a group of archetypical rural teenagers. Perry seems to like Duncan, or at least likes having him around, his own family life being far worse than Duncan’s. When teenage boy hormones, internalized homophobia, and the cycle of abuse manifest themselves all at one time in Perry, Duncan is at the center of the storm. You see what’s coming long before it happens, but, thanks to Guiry and Hirsh’s strong performances, you don’t mind all that foreshadowing.
There are times this film is hard to watch, not only for the predictable but still very tragic story, but also because it’s never easy to watch people be deliberately cruel. It’s a good-looking film: lush and green and a mixture of open spaces and dark dusty buidlings. With the exception of the supporting character Neanderthal/teenagers, all of the performances have depth. The film did lose some credibility with me, though, when it glossed over the physical reality of rape for whatever purpose. If it needed to be shown on screen (and I think the writer/director Michael Burke did the right thing not moving it offscreen), it needed to be handled with as much honesty as the emotional aspects of the event.
3 1/2 stars
DJR Melvin
