Boy Wonder Review – Broken Revenge

Boy Wonder (2010)

What would you do? If as a young child you saw your Mother killed in a car-jacking, what would you do? Would you try and come to turns with it? Would you attempt to rebuild your life, never forget her, but over the years at least try and arrive at some kind of peace? Or, as is the want these days, get yourself a costume and some “wonderful toys” or bitten by a radioactive spider and join the fight against crime?

In Boy Wonder [DVD] , Sean Donavon does neither of these things. He becomes an A-grade student. He learns languages, he listens to classical music and he’s a strong athlete. He trains at a kick-boxing gym, but doesn't enter tournaments – what’s the point of competitions? What’s the point when all the time you’re looking for the killer of your Mother? After all these years you’re still looking. You may not have found them, but there are plenty of other people out there who need justice to be brought against them, just read the newspapers.

I think that in our minds, if we imagine having to deal with someone we love being killed, there are thoughts of exacting our own kind of revenge. Our heads filling with all the things that we would do to someone who hurt our family or friends. We wouldn't wait for the lumbering cogs of the criminal justice system to get into gear, we’d fight back. Beating another human being to a pulp. Maybe going as far as to wipe them off the Earth. All for justice. There is a part of us that feels excited by this thought, scared as well, but excited. Sean takes that thought out into the world.

This is not an origin story. Sean’s already in the middle of his own brand of justice. There are a few, short flashbacks, but we have to pick up what’s going on as it’s happening. As Sean is trying to find his Mother’s killer, we’re also trying to find out who Sean really is, because just as justice is not as clear cut as ‘an eye for an eye’, neither is Sean. At various points Sean is right and wrong and everything in between. Whether you believe he’s the hero or the villain ebbs and flows throughout. The film subtly leaves the moral judgement to you, but doesn’t let you arrive at one conclusion easily. At times you’re rooting for Sean, and at others you’re desperately hoping the police catch him and stop him before he goes even further.

There’s a quiet originality that you rarely see about crime in film as Boy Wonder dares to explore the complexity of the vigilante. This may go some way to explaining why the movie is little known in the mainstream. It doesn't wear its message on its sleeve; it’s deep in its bones. There are two remarkable scenes linked to Sean confronting a pimp that cleverly show very different reactions to what Sean’s doing. The beauty in them is that you understand these diverse reactions.

A relatively small cast deliver strong performances (especially by Bill Sage as Sean’s Father), but the brooding black hole at the centre of the film is Caleb Steinmeyer. He plays Sean in an intense, but never hysterical portrayal of a young man doing what he thinks is right, but losing the ability to question his own actions.

I wonder if we love superhero movies because we feel powerless; little people in a big world who fantasize about being giants? We want to take all the punches thrown at us. Withstand life and in some way try and control it by having power. Sean chooses a very real asphalt and knuckleduster power, a power that you can lose yourself in. How much difference is there between a costumed superhero and a broken young man with a gun?

Boy Wonder, written and directed by Michael Morrissey, is an underrated and under exposed gem of a film that shows what the reality of our revenge fantasies could be.It's a film that you have to stumble upon to find, but for those that do (see the reviews on Amazon and iTunes for proof) it makes a big impact.

Check it out on Amazon here and let us know what you think.

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