It’s a generic title, and this brooding Australian indie sports drama itself feels a bit generic: you’ll probably guess the ending seven minutes into the movie. Still, it’s well-acted, particularly by Levi Miller who plays 15-year-old swimming prodigy Benjamin, known to everyone as “Boy” – a transcendent athlete gifted with Michael Phelps levels of talent. Miller impressively looks the part: strong legs, broad back, shoulders as wide as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. What’s more, he manages to bring a spark of personality to a character who for chunks of the movie is a super-focused obsessive swimming machine.
The film begins four months before the Olympics trials. Scouts from an elite sports institute in Brisbane are sniffing around; but then Boy’s dad Rob (Jason Isaacs) is released from prison – news that makes the front page of the local paper. Before jail, he was a violent alcoholic who terrorised his family; now he’s a spent force, broken and needy. From hereon in, the storyline acquires a slightly inevitable pull: Boy becomes distracted in the pool, drifting into trouble. He reconnects with his older half-brothers, a pair of heavily tattooed beer-drinking wrong ’uns. Can he turn it around before the trials?
