Powerful n' Hard Hitting. Review on Boys Don't Cry

I watched this flick when it was released here in India. Maybe a couple of years ago. But it was still very much fresh on my mind when I watched it again last night. I remember this movie every time I see someone trying to be unjust to the stronger gender which we mistakenly call the weaker one.

Now forget the popcorn for a while and give your kind attention to this flick.

Now Showing:

Director: Kimberly Pierce

The Movie:

Brandon Teena (Hillary Swank) is a boy who is in fact a girl named Teena Brandon. Teena Brandon is a girl going through an identity crisis based on her gender. Although being a girl she tries to live a boy within her. Truth is always darker than fiction. That is what 'Boys Don't Cry' tells. Brandon Teena did just a single mistake in her life for which she had to face the darkest game of destiny and the wrath of a blunt society. The movie is based on a true life story. If watching the movie was so depressing, how would it have felt like to Teena? It only tears my mind apart to think on that question.

The double life which Brandon Teena led. The lies he had to speak to keep his secret identity a secret. Was he surely lying to people around him? Or was he just being honest to himself living as he wanted to live? This is a thought which made my nights sleepless for nearly a week. One thing I knew for sure was my brains weren't normal after I walked out of the theatre. Such was the impact of the movie on me.

It's the year 1993. Lincoln is where Teena Brandon stays. As she decides to be a man, we see her cutting her hair, taping her breasts with surgical bandages and filling all the areas of her body make it look like a man's body. Her adventures as a life of a boy start well. He makes fast friends with a group staying at Falls City. Here he falls in love with a girl called Lana played by Chloe Sevigny. Lana has been a victim of sexual abuse. And Brandon being a girl at core is the most understanding and sensitive man Lana has ever met. This strikes an immediate emotional as well as physical chemistry between the two. This is the best time in Brandon's life. His friends include two other boys (Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton), Lana and Lana's mother. He has found a family for himself. But as his secret comes to light, Teena is gang raped and killed by the two of her very own friends.

The Performances:

Hillary Swank gives Brandon Teena true to each n' every corner of the character. She gives us a feel of watching Brandon himself. The trauma n' dillema of the scene after Teena's rape has been executed to perfection by Hillary Swank. Chloe Sevigny plays Lana perfectly. She matches the confused smoothness of the character. Peter Sarsgaard plays his character with criminal bent of psyche with natural ease. Brendan Sexton is equally effective as the fellow killer.

Director's cut:

Direction is top notch. Kimberly Pierce shows events as they happened. With no unnecesory scenes added, the final output is a dark, gritty film which touches one with a punch. Some of the most impressing scenes of the movie are ones which show high acceleration of things giving a poetic touch to the movie. These mean to highlight the pace of the short life lived by Brandon Teena. The violent climax is what made those tears roll out of my eyes, which I had been holding since long. The price Teena has to pay for living as she wishes is something she could have missed over by living a false life which could have earned her many more years of unsatisfied life.

A word of caution: 'Boys Don't Cry' is not for everyone looking for enjoyment. It can be understood more by the individuals with love for serious cinema. For me this one is a masterpiece.