I watched this movie about two-three months back. Actually I should rather say, I have been watching this movie for about two-three months. Whenever I feel like watching it I switch it on and take a dip into the lives of Mason, Olivia and Samantha. Because somewhere in the midst of their lives I can discover myself, I can relate my story to theirs. There had been films in the past which I repeatedly watched for infinite times and thus also earned titles like “psycho” or some more specific ones like “Kamur” from my friends, but this one here is a different case. Boyhood is not only a movie, it is the story of life, it is the story of one’s dreams. Dreams that after turning to reality again compels us to think, “Was it all that I longed for??? Was that it???”.
The first fascinating thing about Boyhood is that it was shot in a span of twelve years. Yes, you heard it right, twelve years. You will literally watch the whole cast grow in front of you for twelve long years.
Boyhood can be classified into the new genre of coming-of-the-age drama film. Written and directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke it is the story of Mason Evans Jr., starting from his childhood to adolescence. Mason and his sister Samantha live in Texas with their divorced mother Olivia. Olivia later on moves the family to Houston, so that she can attend the University of Houston, complete her degree, and get a job. As usual, the kids weren’t too happy with the idea. Mason is shown questioning his mother if she still loves their dad. He enquires, “What if Dad wants to come back to us and he doesn’t find us !!!”. Here Linklater successfully reflects the sort of mental turmoil a kid has to go through if the parents are separated.
In Houston their father Mason Sr. (who is shown as an unprepared teen dad who is unwilling to carry on the responsibilities of a Family Man) visits them and they spend time with him in the weekends. Olivia on the other hand works hard to build a career and then take care of her family. She gets into some more relationships, even gets married and move in with Mason and Samantha but unfortunately all turns faulty. Among all these going on in the movie Director Linklater successfully incorporates some real life events like a midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or attending a Houston Astros game.
The movie moves on. Mason’s dad changes from a casual fun loving person to a responsible father who sells his prized GTO for a minivan only for his new wife and their little baby. Meanwhile Olivia keeps on chasing her dream. She completes her degree and joins college as a psychology teacher. Mason and Samantha grow up. Samantha joins College, Mason also graduates from High School. Towards the end as Mason is shown preparing to leave his mother’s new apartment for college, Olivia breaks down, saying “I just thought there would be more,”.
Linklater ends the movie with these lines,
- You know how everyone’s always saying, “Seize the moment”? I don’t know, I’m kinda thinking it’s the other way around. It’s the moment that seizes us. It’s constant. The moment, it’s just like it’s always right now, you know?
Somewhere while studying about cinema I came across this definition which said, “Cinema is a medium to reflect reality as it occurs in time in a sequence of images”. I think with Boyhood, Linklater had done justice to it. Boyhood is all about considering the passage of time through the perspective of a little boy who in due course transforms from a boy in the first grade to a young man who is ready for college.
Boyhood reminded me of a harsh reality of life about which, even though all of us are quite aware, we simply pretend we don’t care. That’s the time which we are going on leaving behind each day, each hour, each minute. Our parents who worked day and night just to ensure us a better life, faced all those hardships only to ensure us a better future, what did they get in return? Living all alone in there, waiting for their children to visit them in vacations, smile for a day or two, and again start that endless wait!!! Was it all that they longed for? Did they face all those hardships only to see this day. No, definitely not. But then, who can help? It’s time after all. As Linklater said, “No one is able to seize the moment, it’s the moment that seizes us.”
25.846525
93.429875