Wonderfully unsettling

cdewan

This isn't your grandma's Lifetime movie.

LOST BOY is tense, suspenseful, and asks some tough questions that it leaves intentionally unanswered: an entertaining but also unsettling experience, with a strong, nuanced performance by its young male lead.

I had doubts about it at the beginning, as the movie seemed to be going down some over-familiar tropes: a mother who's unable to let go of her lost son, a father who's all too eager to let go, the siblings of the lost boy, who have grown up a bit neglected in their brother's shadow, etc.

But when the lost son returns, that's just the first of several twists, and before long this movie goes into some deep, interesting, and seldom-asked questions about this family and its sad situation.

I found the ending, in particular, very satisfying, and not in a "Hollywood" way: it lingered with me and unsettled me for some time after the credits were done rolling.

Way to go, Lifetime, for green-lighting this challenging fare.

score 10/10

cdewan 5 August 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3291332/