Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
This Boy's Life is elevated almost entirely by its performances — a young Leonardo DiCaprio holding his own against Robert De Niro at his most terrifying, with Ellen Barkin adding quiet desperation. De Niro's Dwight Hansen is a masterclass in coiled menace. The plot itself follows a fairly well-worn coming-of-age-under-abuse structure, grounded in memoir authenticity but not especially inventive in its dramatic architecture. Cinematography is competent and period-appropriate without being distinctive. Novelty is low — the abusive stepfather/troubled youth narrative was already well-trodden territory, and while the performances elevate it, the conception isn't singular. The ending resolves satisfyingly within its true-story constraints but doesn't transcend the genre.