Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)

Director: Aisling Walsh

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Rural Ireland, 1939: Just returned from serving with the International Brigades in Spain, William Franklin (Quinn) takes up a teaching post at a boys' reformatory run by the Roman Catholic church. Making strides at improving literacy, he's soon locked in conflict with disciplinarian Brother John (Glen), whose evident brutality is nevertheless more visible than the abuses taking place behind closed doors. Historical distance may keep events in this adaptation of Patrick Galvin's autobiographical novel somewhat removed from its still urgent issues, but the catalogue of corporal punishment is undeniably harrowing. The film is most effective when wielding the strap, and merely workmanlike in other crucial areas. Comparisons with The Magdalene Sisters are instructive; the subject matter is not dissimilar, but whereas Mullan empathetically shaped the drama from the victims' point of view, the boys here are characterised less richly. The focus is firmly on the tussle between institutional repression and liberalising ideas, an emphasis unfortunately serving to underline the script's black-and-white schematising. Still, praise is due for Glen's scarily buttoned down enforcer and newcomer John Travers' artful dodger.

Author: TJ 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • MaruĊĦa said...
    Posted on Nov 22 2007 15:23 I love the film. It shows whatwas going on,.. The priests were mean pigs..
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Aisling Walsh

Producer: Tristan Orpen Lynch, Dominic Wright, John McDonnell, Kevin Byron-Murphy

Cast: Aidan Quinn, Iain Glen, Marc Warren, Dudley Sutton, Alan Devlin, Stuart Graham, John Travers, Chris Newman, Andrew Simpson, Mark Butler, Bernard Manning, Samuel Bright full cast

Duration: 100 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.