L'enfance perdue

I was bored and wanted to watch a movie, Jet Boy was the only movie starting at that moment so I started to watch it. The beginning hooked me right away, I wanted to know what would happen to this young boy who was selling himself on his twelfth birthday. This movie hooked me and it kept me hooked all the way through. A lot of neat things happened :)

It felt like the director was having trouble stitching together an over complicated turn of events. The flaws in the plot are evident from the beginning yet had they been simplified I feel it would have worked so much better.

A neglected / abused adolescent meets and cons his way into getting a lift off a mysterious stranger he suspects is a drug dealer. The stranger is coerced into giving the boy a lift. There then follows an unlikely turn of events re-uniting the stranger with an old flame and the boy - passing himself off as the stranger's son - befriends the woman's son.

Never having had a father figure the boy jealously guards his new 'mentor' and resorts to unconventional means to try and win him over as the movie becomes more plausible but still somewhat 'messy'. As with the opening scenes the fate of the protagonist is heart rending.

All that being said the director handles some very tricky issues very delicately although I would have preferred otherwise. These are real issues and there should be the 'shock factor', it would never have been a family film so maybe the delicacy with which issues were addressed detracts from, or dilutes the impact they have in real life.

Brendan Nadon was a little unconvincing in my opinion but playing the part of a 13 year old when 15 did give him a little more maturity which is true to life for those poor kids that have to grow up fast. The adult actors held it all together with some strong performances.

I still gave the movie 7 out of 10 because despite the obvious flaws the director handled the unenviable task of avoiding censorship when dealing with child abuse and prostitution.. The film was very engaging and well worth watching.

«Jet Boy» is not a pleasant movie to watch, not for the sordid elements in the plot, but for the options the leading characters choose in the end, in a hopeless intent to form a "happy home". And worse than that, what begins rather promising turns into a melodrama of few merits: the performances by Branden Nadon as Nathan, the "jet boy", and Dylan Walsh, as Boon, the tough driver who is forced to take Nathan with him in a dangerous trip to Vancouver, related to drug trafficking.

The main issue is that 13-year-old Nathan is a prostitute, abused and battered by adult male patrons, who runs away from Calgary when his junky mother dies of intoxication with bad dope that he provided. He meets Boon in a cafeteria on the road, and suspects that the man is into "something". When Boon makes a phone call, Nathan memorizes and then erases a number which is vital for Boon to call in Vancouver... and so on, the plot gets into cliched territory, giving rutinary psychological answers to many of both characters' ticks, blows and surrender, including a return to Boon's hometown, to his dying father, to his ex-bride and her son, whose apparently idyllic suburban life attracts Nathan and unwittingly Boon too.

Things get tougher, deadlier in Vancouver, and... you know the rest. It gets mellow and improbable, but I tell you, Nadon does a fine job as the kid, and Walsh gives good support as the kind of man who attracts and repels Nathan. Not bad to watch as a surrogate of a TV Movie of the Week.

A very flawed film with more plot holes than a cheese grater. It is a fairy tale for abused children dressed up as gritty realism. It has a daft storyline and an over-the-top ending that only lacked an appearance from Santa Claus to make it complete. Its failure to represent reality, considering the seriousness of the story line, was getting on my nerves. But the completed movie is greater than the sum of its parts. The acting, particularly of Nathan the abused boy, is very good and regardless of everything that is wrong with the film, I couldn't help but become involved in the action and emotionally invested in the outcome.

I found this almost impossible to watch at the start. So sad and depressing that I actually gave up on it. I actually felt angry that such a movie had been made. Only after seeing so many good reviews that I decided to try again.

I'm happy that I did. The acting by Branden Nadon as Nathan is unforgettable.

I've given it 9 out of 10. A truly great movie.