Such a frustrating disappointment

Don't Believe the Hype

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Little boy blue is a blonde haired young man who lives with his trailer trash family out in the middle of nowhere, down south. His mom works at a bar and his dad does the classic haunted dysfunctional Viet Nam vet role. THere are random stabs of violence and the macabre but it's not cohesive and the movie has little impact because it's such an unlikely story that was attempted to be told for no particular reason that I can fathom. I don't think they had any idea on how to shift gears in this movie and as such the shifts are extremely clumsy. The way this story is told is inept and dull and the editing is poor with the pacing of the scenes. This is a pointless plot that can't seem to represent any of its' plot elements believably.One thing I noticed that was funny:When a woman is being questioned by police she is given Texas beer and she asks for Sam Adams instead. In the next camera shot she is drinking Heineken and there is no Texas beer or Sam Adams anywhere in the room. Bizarre.Ryan Phillipe is the main character and he's pretty annoyingly androgynous here, I was kind of hoping his back street boys character would die painfully. He does a much better job in "Five Fingers" and "Igby Goes Down".

Anything which invites my intellectual capacity to keep itself geared up and working is well worthwhile, and is precisely where this film scores: you have to be well tuned in, especially in the early stages, to follow where everything is leading. In this respect, this is no ordinary film in what would be called the `noir' or thriller genre. `Little Boy Blue' is too far off the run-of-the-mill productions of this kind, precisely because it delves into psychological aspects of what some may call a dysfunctional family. Under Antonio Tibaldi's taught and intelligent directing both Ryan Phillippe and Nastassja Kinski give the best performances I have ever seen them in. But both are topped by a splendid John Savage, veteran of Viet-Nam and now alcoholic, whose reading of his rôle is simply splendid, well controlled, and in the end very convincing. The mysteriousness which pervades in this thriller is due to it not being a straightforward dishing up of countless other similar stories dreamed up for less exiguous viewers: tactical discontinuity heightens sensibility and forces you to take note of what is going on - or at least, the part of what is going on that the film shows you. Do not get me wrong: there is no incongruity. The telling of the story is practically faultless, such that the directing and interpretation rise to the occasion. One can argue the pros and cons of the plot, probably because the film does not follow simple formulas and models which might well make more than a few viewers lose track, but there is no denying its mysterious intentions. Surprisingly few voters on IMDb, and my vote is a little higher than at present.

The primary problem with most non-mainstream films is that they fail to adhere to some of the basic cinematic elements that make films work. True, they are often interesting and provocative, but they fail in the larger sense that the film itself (not just the subject matter or content) fails to succeed for viewers. That is not the case with "Little Boy Blue." For once, a novel premise and provocative content combine in a well-written screenplay that leaves the viewer fulfilled instead of disappointed. This film far exceeded my expectations in all areas, including the believable yet powerful acting in all of the major characters. My major problem with the film was that the early part of the film didn't deal with (or even allude to) the overriding premise that really comes to light in the final third of the film. Additionally, the Doris Knight characterization seemed a bit unstable and her motivation in the final scenes is hard to pin down.Still, a highly recommended film.

Little Boy Blue is for the most part well acted but it grinds to a weird crawl and ultimately ends in illogic and nihilism. There's no irony in red herrings (or catfish), even a whole fish market of them. David Lynch used to make this sort of movie, and he was very good at it. But this movie just doesn't get the job done, and the flatness into which it peters out is ultimately uninvolving.Maybe if you watch the first half and get up for popcorn and never come back to the TV, you can imagine a better finish of your own.