A Boy's Life

Watching this documentary a few days ago, I was absolutely appalled and horrified by the behavior of the grandmother toward her 7-year old grandson, Robert. Robert was conceived out of wedlock to an underaged woman and gave her son (and later his little brother conceived while the mother was still underage and still out of wedlock) over to the custody of his half-witted, insane grandmother. The old saying "sticks and stones . . . . " is totally wrong when compared to mental abuse. This documentary should be required viewing for anyone thinking of having children or adopting children. It will show you how NOT to raise a child. I would like to see an update on Robert's progress.

"A Boy's Life", Rory Kennedy's portrait of Robert, a young boy (7) growing up in abject poverty in Northern Mississippi, was difficult to watch.

Difficult to watch only because of the treatment that Robert received at the hand of his Grandmother. Numerous instances of the child being emotionally decimated by his "mamaw" raised red flags of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. Regardless of the impetus of the mistreatment, the film captured an upsetting family dynamic as orchestrated by the matriarch. The film was effective in its crafting layers of complexity of the relationships between Robert, his brother (whom was not examined by the film), the grandmother, and his mother.

There are moments in which I sensed some exploitation of this family in unenviable conditions; but it wasn't so much that it took away from the gravity and texture of the film.

I recommend this documentary but keep a tissue nearby, just in case.

Fairly well done documentary about one southern family's life in the midst of poverty and psychological abuse. I rather enjoyed this movie, and found my self laughing at times during the opening half. Yet this is certainly not a comical movie. Early on some the characters acted so uniquely odd, so over the top "Southern", that it seemed to be staged. As the movie runs on, you realize that it is not the case. The things that seemed laughable early on, seem quite different at the movies end. The documentary looks in to several ills that seem to go hand in hand with poverty. It takes on more social problems, I imagine, than even the film makers expected. Nonetheless it gives us a snapshot, not always an objective one, at this family's life.

There is nothing worse than out of control adults attempting to "raise" a child. The child always ends up the victim. The grandmother is particularly disturbed and disturbing!!! She is an emotional and psychological psychopath with an obvious narcissistic personality disorder! I swear to God, I wanted to reach into the television set and slap her for her abusive and destructive behavior. As I was watching this documentary, I admit that I really did not care about her or her life as she was very very ill and needed to STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOY. I really hope this kid GETS OUT OF THIS SITUATION, pursues his education (the biggest saving grace this child has to survive and ultimately thrive) and LEAVES THE TOWN. Lest I seem unfeeling, I do understand that grinding poverty can lead to many devastating choices, but honestly, the one main route out: EDUCATION (and yes, you can get out even with a "public school" education). Thank God for the teacher who provided this young boy with one positive adult role model.

When I first started to watch this, I thought both the mother and the grandmother were no good, poor white trash and that the mother should be sterilized. Both seemed to be somewhat unstable mentally. The boy, too, seemed equally hopeless. As the movie progressed, my perception began to change and I began to see who was the real problem in this relationship.

Luckily, the social workers and teachers saw who the problem was as well. They actually have hope that Robert could turn out to be a normal little boy. Looking at him as they said this, you'd think they were saying this because they had to. However....

Kudos to the people who made this film who somehow were able to find these people and film their lives at such a turning point.