THE BOYS ARE BACK

Year: 2009
USA: Miramax Films
UK: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (UK)
Cast: Clive Owen, Emma Booth, Laura Fraser, George MacKay, Nicholas McAnulty, Natasha Little, Emma Lung, Julia Blake, Erik Thomson, Chris Haywood, Adam Morgan, Klayton Stainer, Alexandra Schepisi
Director: Scott Hicks
Countries: Australia / UK
USA & UK: 103 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for some sexual language and thematic elements
UK Certificate: 12A contains one crude sex reference and implied strong language
USA DVD Release Date: 26 January 2010
UK Release Date: 22 January 2010

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Synopsis

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 humour 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.

Wrestling with an oncoming tidal wave of foreign emotions, Carr nevertheless had to figure out how to reinvent himself, how to go from a shell-shocked widower to a hands-on dad with the wherewithal to bring his family back from the brink. It wasn't easy, and there was no map. He dodged all the do-gooder advice, and started his own experiment in what he called "free range" parenting. He proudly made every mistake in the book. And yet, somehow, day after day, struggle after struggle, Carr and his two sons found a way to grab onto momentary pleasures - and each other - as they began to re-emerge as a stronger, different kind of family unit than they might have imagined. Though they called themselves "The Lost Boys," father and sons found something vitally sustaining in each other - and in the human spirit's capability to survive a world where nothing, ever, can be taken for granted.

Based on Simon Carr's memoir 'The Boys Are Back' published in 2001 with a screenplay by Allan Cubitt. Directed by Scott Hicks (NO RESERVATIONS, SHINE), THE BOYS ARE BACK was filmed on location in South Australia and England.