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The Butcher Boy

Play trailer Poster for The Butcher Boy R 1997 1h 46m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
77% Tomatometer 62 Reviews 81% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Francie (Eamonn Owens) has a disastrous childhood and retreats into television and movies to escape the pain. His mother (Aisling O'Sullivan) is suicidal, and his alcoholic father (Stephen Rea) has little to do with him. Francie's tendency to project violent fantasies onto reality lands him in reform school, where he is sexually abused. Wildly looking to hold someone responsible for all the trauma visited on him, Francie targets his neighbor, Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw).
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The Butcher Boy

The Butcher Boy

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Critics Consensus

Equal parts comical and harrowing, The Butcher Boy is a sobering tale of abuse told with an imaginative lyricism that is by turns inspired and distracting.

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Critics Reviews

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Paul Tatara CNN.com The Butcher Boy is a trip, all right, but one that I'm sorry I took. Feb 5, 2018 Full Review Mike Clark USA Today The movie is well-crafted and tightly assembled, but it's also loud and unmodulated. Rated: 2.5/4 Jan 9, 2018 Full Review Lisa Alspector Chicago Reader Director Neil Jordan and Patrick McCabe adapted McCabe's novel for this bland 1998 shocker that fails miserably as satire, character study, and anything else it might have aspired to. Mar 11, 2008 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review The Butcher Boy is bold and often shocking, but the film’s playful humor crashes against the dark, manic, sometimes depressing material and makes for an oddly enjoyable-if-devastating drama. Rated: 4/4 Mar 8, 2024 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...clumsily lurches from one irrelevant, uninteresting episode to the next... Rated: 0/4 Jan 26, 2014 Full Review Ken Fox TV Guide Owens' remarkable, high-pitched performance and Jordan's lush, visionary style are perfectly suited to the material. Rated: 3.5/4 Mar 11, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Kevin M Very sad movie with whatever the boy went through in his life. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/13/23 Full Review S R 1001 movies to see before you die. A bizarre Irish film showing the culture there in a way that was blasphemous, black and funny at the same time. It crossed a few lines for me though and hence its rating, but it still kept my interest. It could have been much cleaner and been more approachable. It was on youtube. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/14/23 Full Review Thomas M The best acting performance from Eamonn Owens! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/25/22 Full Review dave s One of director Neil Jordan's lesser-known films, The Butcher Boy follows the exploits of Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens), the product of an alcoholic father and mentally mother, who makes his way through life in a small working-class Irish village by means of violence and intimidation, a sociopath in the making. It is a bleak and harrowing existence, but the film is infused with an odd energy thanks to the performance of Owens, as well as Jordan's direction, who allows the camera to roam about in a manner consistent with the movie's 12-year-old protagonist…or would that be antagonist? What makes The Butcher Boy so compelling is the fact that while you have hope for Francie's future, it seems inevitable that things will turn out poorly for him. Despite this, the atrocities at the end of the film still come as an unwelcomed shock. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member I last saw this movie in the late 90's. It messed me up in my late twenties, but left such an impression on me that I still remember it. It was a glimpse into the madness of a troubled little boy, and how he came to be. At the time, it reminded me a lot of Pink Floyd's The Wall in terms of uncomfortable viewing it gave me. But clearly it left its mark, if I can still review it in 2022 and make out all of its parts. That's the mark of a good movie. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review William L Strange to see an Irish film from the '90s that doesn't have Brendan Gleeson somewhere in ... nope, no wait, there he is. A black comedy that leans more heavily towards tragic drama to develop its main character than its interesting surrealism, The Butcher Boy shows hints at a bizarre and entertaining take on adolescence and family breakdown but spends too much time on the grounded, distressing elements to keep the energy and interest level high. An exasperated chase scene finale that joins the cultural escape of an young midcentury kid with real-world brutality (equating his murder of the woman that he perceives as having stolen his best friend with a Lone Ranger-esque adventure) is too fun of a finale to really be satisfied with a buildup that is mostly just miserable moping and the occasional conversation with a vulgar Virgin Mary. Still, demonstrates a capable understanding of the climate of confusion and unpredictability of the Cold War coupled with American Western swagger, each coalescing into major personality traits of a disaffected kid with a bad home life. A slow start, but a strong finish, and featuring an unusually good performance from a child actor in Eamonn Owens' Francie, who convincingly delivers a unique combination of frustration, determination, and cruelty. And let's be clear, this kid was a little twerp well before his life started falling apart. (2.5/5) Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/22 Full Review Read all reviews
The Butcher Boy

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Francie (Eamonn Owens) has a disastrous childhood and retreats into television and movies to escape the pain. His mother (Aisling O'Sullivan) is suicidal, and his alcoholic father (Stephen Rea) has little to do with him. Francie's tendency to project violent fantasies onto reality lands him in reform school, where he is sexually abused. Wildly looking to hold someone responsible for all the trauma visited on him, Francie targets his neighbor, Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw).
Director
Neil Jordan
Producer
Redmond Morris, Stephen Woolley
Screenwriter
Pat McCabe, Neil Jordan, Pat McCabe
Production Co
Geffen Pictures, Butcher Boy Film, Warner Bros.
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA)
$2.0M
Runtime
1h 46m
Sound Mix
Surround, DTS, SDDS, Dolby Digital
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