Shy and thoughtful 16-year-old misfit punk skateboarder Michael (an excellent performance by Noah Taylor) has an ill-advised stormy romantic fling with Sally (touchingly played by Gillian Jones), a lonely and troubled 42-year-old woman who's a friend of his mother. Written and directed with praiseworthy frankness, insight and sensitivity by Geoffrey Wright (who later gave us the terrific "Romper Stomper" and the equally fantastic "Metal Skin"), with gritty, yet polished photography by Michael Williams, a spare, rattling score by John Clifford White, superb acting from the two leads, and a heart-breaking, uncompromisingly downbeat conclusion, this stark, tight, wholly credible and absorbing little drama commendably avoids both easy sappy sentiment and lurid sensationalism while relating its moving story of a doomed May-December romance. Raw and realistic, this fine hour long feature ultimately delivers a very strong and lingering emotional gut punch.
Review of Lover Boy
Lover Boy
(1989)
A poignant portrait of a doomed May-December romance
4 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers