Tagline: Growing up can be the adventure of a lifetime.
A witty, wisecracking, action-oriented sportswriter (Clive Owen) who, in the wake of his wife’s tragic death, finds himself in a sudden, stultifying state of single parenthood. With turbulent emotions swirling just below the surface, Joe Warr throws himself into the only child-rearing philosophy he thinks has a shot at bringing joy back into their lives: “just say yes.”
Raising two boys – a curious six year-old (Nicholas McAnulty) and a rebel teen from a previous marriage — in a household devoid of feminine influence, and with an unabashed lack of rules, life becomes exuberant, instinctual, reckless… and on the constant verge of disaster. United by unspoken love, conflicted by fierce feelings and in search of a road forward, the three multi-generational boys of the Warr household, father and sons alike, must each find their own way, however tenuous, to grow up. Their story is not just about the transforming power of a family crisis — but the unavoidable grace of everyday life and love that gets them through.
The rocky, precarious, yet insistently life-affirming journey of THE BOYS ARE BACK began with the real-life story of a father facing his family’s greatest crisis the only way he could – by sheer instinct, with unflagging humor and a dogged refusal to give up on the most primal basics of love and life no matter the daily battles ahead. In 1994, Simon Carr’s wife Susie died after a gutsy bout against cancer. Up till then, life had been pretty darned good for the journalist– he was deeply in love, a respected workaholic and a man with a spontaneous streak of adventure and dry wit. But suddenly, Carr woke up a single father without a single clue as to how to go on, let alone do the laundry.
Read the Full Production Notes
The Boys Are Back
Starring: Clive Owen, Laura Fraser, Emma Booth, George MacKay, Nicholas McAnulty, Natasha Little, Alexandra Schepisi
Directed by: Scott Hicks
Screenplay by: Allan Cubitt
Release Date: September 25, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual language and thematic elements.
Studio: Miramax Films
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $809.752 (100.0%)
Foreign: —
Total: $809,752 (Worldwide)