The Bay Boy

The Bay Boy (1984)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Coming-of-Age, Period Film  |   Run Time - 107 min.  |   Countries - Canada  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Kiefer Sutherland won a Genie Award for his performance in Bay Boy. In 1937 Nova Scotia, Donald Campbell (Sutherland) lives with his dirt-poor parents (Liv Ullmann and Peter Donat). His folks hope that Donald will enter the priesthood, but he isn't keen on this. For one thing, he harbors "unnatural" feelings towards a nun; for another, one of the local priests has made sexual advances towards him. Donald prefers to spend his time with pretty sisters Saxon and Dianna (Leah Pinsent and Jane McKinnon) -- but even this becomes untenable when the boy witnesses a homicidal hate crime committed by the girls' father, police constable Tom Coldwell (Alan Scarfe). It is in this intolerable atmosphere that Donald finally comes of age, which is the point to which the film is leading. Weighed down with an unnecessarily complex script, Kiefer Sutherland comes off quite well in Bay Boy; the other performers -- even the estimable Liv Ullmann -- tend to be one-note stereotypes.

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Keywords

coming-of-age, teenagers, murder, witness, sexual-awakening