Don't listen to the negative reviews

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This is one of those Southern Gothic flicks involving family secrets in a small town with characters and events that make your skin crawl, yet you just can't stop watching. About halfway through you'll think you've got it all figured out but one or two of the revelations towards the end will probably take you by surprise.Ryan Phillippe does an outstanding job, showing that even early in his career he was more than a pretty face, as does Nastassja Kinski, who I guess also shows she was more than a pretty face. (As for John Savage, he can probably phone in this kind of role by now.) One quirky aspect of the script is that various characters will be just about to learn something important when the scene will cut away .. leaving you, the viewer, in the dark. It comes dangerously close to being an annoyance, but the upside is that this allows the final act to spring its surprises all the more effectively.I appreciated that the ending was more hopeful than I'd expected, partly because I thought I'd figured things out but was proved wrong. Had this been directed by someone like David Lynch it would probably have been a masterpiece. Nonetheless, even if it doesn't rise to that level it is certainly a film that holds your attention and keeps you guessing until the end. More than a "B movie" .. maybe a B+.

Anything which invites my intellectual capacity to keep itself geared up and working is well worthwhile, and is precisely where this film scores: you have to be well tuned in, especially in the early stages, to follow where everything is leading. In this respect, this is no ordinary film in what would be called the `noir' or thriller genre. `Little Boy Blue' is too far off the run-of-the-mill productions of this kind, precisely because it delves into psychological aspects of what some may call a dysfunctional family. Under Antonio Tibaldi's taught and intelligent directing both Ryan Phillippe and Nastassja Kinski give the best performances I have ever seen them in. But both are topped by a splendid John Savage, veteran of Viet-Nam and now alcoholic, whose reading of his rôle is simply splendid, well controlled, and in the end very convincing. The mysteriousness which pervades in this thriller is due to it not being a straightforward dishing up of countless other similar stories dreamed up for less exiguous viewers: tactical discontinuity heightens sensibility and forces you to take note of what is going on - or at least, the part of what is going on that the film shows you. Do not get me wrong: there is no incongruity. The telling of the story is practically faultless, such that the directing and interpretation rise to the occasion. One can argue the pros and cons of the plot, probably because the film does not follow simple formulas and models which might well make more than a few viewers lose track, but there is no denying its mysterious intentions. Surprisingly few voters on IMDb, and my vote is a little higher than at present.

This movie is for the adult audience, the actors do a wonderful job portraying each role, I do wish it was a little longer, but it was well thought out and very good.The beginning of the movie is shown to the very end, where a couple in the 70's are heading towards Texas with their baby, and they unfortunately end up picking up a soldier on his way home.Summary: The seemingly normal couple Ray and Kate West live in the outback somewhere in Texas with their 3 sons, the adult son Jimmy is a great baseball player, but doesn't seem to want to do anything in his life except be around the younger boys, who he is extremely protective over. As the movie progresses we see that there are plenty of secrets hidden within the family when Jimmy is forced to have sex with Kate at gunpoint by Ray.At first the impression I got of the movie was that Jimmy would no doubt kill his father one day for putting him through that form of incest, but as the movie continued it started to make more sense that it wasn't entirely incest, but more a very disfunctional family who suffer from Ray's war "wounds" and are paying the price of what he had gone through. Ryan Phillippe does a superb performance as Jimmy, the tortured and hurt young man, who wants to be with his girlfriend, but has deeper issues concerning his family. John Savage, again another excellent performance, after seeing him in Dark Angel I must admit the bad guy routine really suits him, but I wasn't really fond of Natassja Kinski's acting and character. She still ends up being the devoted wife, who loves her husband even though he puts her through hell. How weak. The younger cast, the two sons were great, really good acting! I'd give this movie a fair 8/10 with a question mark, being we live in this day and age wouldn't a mother try to protect her sons even if it means leaving her husband? (Or shooting him? Hello?? He has a gun in the house, doesn't anyone else know how to use one?!)

Little Boy Blue is for the most part well acted but it grinds to a weird crawl and ultimately ends in illogic and nihilism. There's no irony in red herrings (or catfish), even a whole fish market of them. David Lynch used to make this sort of movie, and he was very good at it. But this movie just doesn't get the job done, and the flatness into which it peters out is ultimately uninvolving.Maybe if you watch the first half and get up for popcorn and never come back to the TV, you can imagine a better finish of your own.