The Mudge Boy (2003)

I am astounded at the fawning praise this insubstantial movie has garnered. It was apparently an "expansion" of a short film made by the director some years earlier; all I can say is that he can't have added much plot, character development or action, for this film has little if any of those things.Don't get me wrong, I enjoy nicely crafted films which explore the human condition, but this isn't one of those. Nothing of much substance happens. It may have been an excellent short movie; it should have stayed one.

Y'know, I have found this film extremely sad. You feel so sorry for young Duncan because his old man didn't give him enough love after his mother suddenly passed. I honestly felt like hugging the pair of them because of both their loss. It's not easy being a teen nor minding one haha! Grief really messed up the father badly, including the fact, he just had to burn his late wife's clothes to forget about her loss and move on. He should've realised, it doesn't work out like that! He should've spent more time with his son and just sort out things to make sure their relationship is stable! I honestly didn't think Perry was the right guy for Duncan. The rape scene just gives you an uneasy feeling. If I was Duncan, I would call the police and arrest him! Also when those crowd of you know whats were killing that Chicken broke my heart, why on earth did they show this? They should've at least give respect to animal lovers, it was just wrong! I can't blab on anymore, the movie was good but my heart honestly aches after watching this!

Great performance by Emile Hirsch, who more recently appeared in 'Into the Wild'. He perfectly captures the impossible isolation, confusion, and tumult of an adolescent wrestling with his mother's sudden death, his father's stoic ineptitude, and his sexuality, all in a rural middle-of-nowhere populated by an older group of (unfortunately stereotypical) redneck teens. However, like the pet chicken, the movie seemed to die a premature death--another 20 minutes or so to add some denouement would have helped. Also, as in Brokeback Mountain, the sudden sex depicted was the Hollywood equivalent of Bruce Willis surviving a fall from a 20 story building--a normal person would have needed surgery afterwards.

Upon seeing the short film FISHBELLY WHITE (part of BOYS LIFE 5) I thought that Michael Burke's story of an off-beat rural farm boy and his pet chicken was both charming and shocking. I even thought it would be fascinating to see a feature length film of the story. I was wrong. Whatever the lyrical magic was that made FISHBELLY WHITE so fascinating seems to have disappeared in THE MUDGE BOY. The main problem is the film's determination to change the character of Perry from a mysteriously handsome romantic hero to a brutish homophobe. In FISHBELLY, Perry is Duncan's (and the viewer's) Heathcliff - a hunky farmhand who befriends our hero. The scene under the train bridge is breathtakingly romantic. MUDGE tries to re-create the scene, but the tone is quite different, with a defensive Perry ruining the mood entirely. Emile Hirsch turns in a fine performance as the sensitive Duncan. Richard Jenkins (of "Six Feet Under" fame) is fine as the grieving dad but Tom Guiry seems all wrong as the bitter Perry. While there is much to recommend THE MUDGE BOY, it's predecessor is a country mile ahead of MUDGE, proving less is sometimes 'mudge' more.