Tobias Wolff’s award-winning memoir about a family in turmoil powerfully comes to life on screen through a pack of potent performances. In the 1950s, a divorced mom (Ellen Barkin) and her troubled teenage son (an electric Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his earliest roles) hit the road in search of a better life. But when she meets a man who outwardly appears to be the ideal new husband (Robert DeNiro), his explosive inner rage threatens to upend their household.
“A young DiCaprio steals the show in this tale of learning how to be a man,” – Angie Errigo, Empire Magazine
“The beauty of This Boy’s Life is in the details: this meticulously observed story gets the look of the late ’50s down pat and, more important, captures the dissonance between the era’s ideals of nuclear-family life and painfully deracinated reality.” – David Ansen, Newsweek
