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The Boys Are Back
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 28
  3. Negative: 1 out of 28
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  1. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    In less capable hands, the movie could have been maudlin. Instead, Hicks and Owen have created an intimate drama told with humor and emotion.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    80
    Few films have so poignantly portrayed a father's relationships with his sons as The Boys Are Back.
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    80
    This is polished yet authentically moving.
  4. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Owen, in a heartfelt, award-caliber performance, never goes soft. It's his core of toughness that makes the movie so funny, touching and vital.
  5. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    75
    It aims -- successfully -- to make you think and feel.
  6. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    Relationships - between men and women, fathers and sons - are more complicated in real life, and The Boys Are Back deftly acknowledges that fact.
  7. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    75
    For all its generally judicious choices, there's one device in The Boys Are Back that may test the patience of some viewers. Every once in a while, the late Katy pops up in a scene to offer Joe wifely advice.
  8. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    The movie should come with the tag line "Don't try this at home," because the method has near-fatal pitfalls. Yet the characters' clumsy emotional growth shows us there's hope even for a stumbling father and two sons groping toward peace.
  9. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    75
    Humor and humanity keep The Boys Are Back from being a cloying mess.
  10. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Stina Chyn
    70
    Neither hater nor admirer, I still get wrapped up in his (Owen) mannerisms and emerald stare.
  11. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    70
    The Boys Are Back is a bit like the parenting it portrays -- at times there is pain, mistakes will be made, but if you can get beyond that, there is pleasure to be found.
  12. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    With those piercing eyes, Owen makes a lovely, soulful Joe, of course. But it's not the nice papa we want to understand here, it's the unapologetically naughty one.
  13. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    Clive Owen can be a likable actor, but the character is working against him...And please, please, give us a break from the scenes where the ghost of the departed turns up and starts talking as if she's not dead.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    63
    An uneven quasi-weepie.
  15. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    Tidily arranges its raw feelings about fathering and manhood into a decent, intelligent melodrama meant to soothe audiences and provoke no one.
  16. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    Hicks has made a technically adept film, but one that, for all of its strong acting and vivid photography, left me less moved than I should have been.
  17. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    63
    Weaving between freshness and formula, The Boys Are Back earns a gentle pat on the head.
  18. NPR
    Reviewed by: Mark Jenkins
    60
    The effect is weirdly lulling. Viewers with a special connection to this story, or a weakness for little boys and single dads, may find The Boys Are Back moving. For everyone else, the movie is merely picturesque.
  19. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    60
    The performances save the movie from a treacly inevitability.
  20. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    58
    Not surprisingly, Boys works much better as an Owen vehicle than a movie--it's a great, meaty part in a decidedly less-than-great film.
  21. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    50
    That it's all true might make it more heart-tugging, but it doesn't make it any more interesting.
  22. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Brian Miller
    50
    Carr's original anecdotes don't supply much storyline, so Hicks spans the gaps with golden-lit montages set to Sigur Rós. They're a great advertisement for Australian vacations. And vasectomies.
  23. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Dan Kois
    50
    What power the movie has comes from its stars, especially the two boys, who give very different but very convincing performances.
  24. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    A substantial performance from Clive Owen rescues what might otherwise have been a fairly gooey fatherhood drama.
  25. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    40
    There's little that can be done with material wrung of its complications to accommodate an ultimately life-affirming, it-all-works-out agenda.
  26. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    40
    It's distinguishing the trickle from the treacle that becomes the problem.
  27. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    40
    Has a burnished, high-quality look and a heart swollen with maudlin self-regard.
  28. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    25
    Owen is a magnetic, sensitive presence at the center of a movie that doesn't deserve him and that barely deserves to be seen.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. Neonite
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. I was really looking forward to this movie. I thought it would be a refreshingly intelligent, progressive and emotionally real depiction of single fatherhood. It was almost. I think unfortunately the Australian film industry gets in the way of itself in terms of a genuine, un-cliched human story. The kind of human realism and emotional depth required to really engage the viewer tend to be outshone by the persistent pandering to our own cliched ideals about men, women and the picturesque landscapes we inhabit. I guess the AF industry isn't big or mature enough yet to include those self-obsessed 'Aussie culture' films - with a whole bunch of other movies that transcend them emotionally and conceptually, and really speak to people as a whole [including Australians]. Although this movie is really quite beautifully produced and includes an evocative soundtrack that communicates much of the emotion, the great moments are still weighed down by almost embarrassing unsophistication in terms of male-female relationships and confused gender hostility typically found in Australian movies. Apparently we don't understand love, we don't like real human connections, in fact we don't like men and women appearing to get along or relate whatsoever. We like them to be angry aliens on each other's planet. Otherwise it interfers with our entrenched lazy ideals about who we are and who we are not, that save us from any real emotional development that might one day be reflected in our films and put us on par with other countries. The movie starts with a gratingly ridiculous and base couple banter, followed by a very moving and well edited treatment of death in a family, and yet the movie innapropriately raps up with a faintly victorious declaration that the three 'boys' have managed to succeed in living without women, including their recently dead one. Although based on a memoir, this is still a story snapped up wittingly or otherwise for being about a loveable incompetent male and the irritating competent females who orbit around him, and they all don't get each other and they all fight a lot and yet utterly accept it as their natural lot in life. Yaaaawn. And in true urban spirit, they'll all live self-righteously ever after.… Full Review »
  2. jimmytancredi
    5
    A movie without much expectations which finished astonishing me. The movie touches us, especially if we fit into one side of the story. I already got will of seeing Clive Owen in a drama, had been some time and finally it was the time for another one. The guy could hold the movie practically by oneself, being completed by Artie who brings the funniest part, and by Harry, who brings the most dramatic, which it swings with the dramatic piece of Joe. A cuddly movie that shows the face of a painful loss and obstacles to tour until the arrival of a deserved victory.… Full Review »
  3. KerrynS
    9
    Fantastic, thought provoking, real story, with breathtaking scenery.
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