A Boy's Life

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.

An in-depth look into the lives of a poor, rural family with little education, and a poor family dynamic. The grandmothers maniplation was outrageous (claiming Benji won the race when robert clearly did, showing up in the kitchen at Roberts birthday and hugging and fawning over him, then crying that no one is paying attention to her)and deeply saddening. The lack of opportunities and resources almost guaruntees this family cycle of poverty will continue with Robert and Benji's children.

Excellently done. Kudos to their schools, and all of our schools. It is an outrage that teachers and school administrators are not among the highest paid positions ion our society, instead of among the lowest. The teachers and staff at our public schools sometimes do more parenting and child rearing than these parents ever do, and the fact that they make next to nothing is embarrassing to me.

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.

"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.

Robert, a Mississippi 7 year old being raised by his grandmother, is victimized by his grandmother's Munchhausen by Proxy disorder- she attributes all manner of disturbed behavior to him and has him falsely medicated for psychiatric disorders that he doesn't have. His 20 year old mother struggles to regain custody of Robert and his younger sibling, Benjamin, both of whom were conceived when she was underage.

A chilling portrait of emotional and psychological child abuse. Rory Kennedy's film is terrific.