The Butcher Boy (1997)

This movie blew my mind. Neil Jordan adapted the screenplay and directed this story about a young boy, I would guess he's about 12 in the film, who is slowly losing his mind.

We meet Francie Brady while he is playing with his best friend Joe. Francie is trouble, but in the beginning the trouble seems to be normal kid stuff - not nice perhaps, but not criminal. However, Francie's mother is suicidal and his father is the town drunk. Chaotic doesn't begin to describe what he deals with at home, and his friend Joe is his refuge. There is a nasty neighbor, played by Fiona Shaw, who calls Francie and his family pigs. She constantly calls him a pig, and she means it.

Mom dies and Francie is sent to a boy's school. There he runs into a "funny" priest. Francie is not surprised, and uses this encounter to get an early exit and heads back home. Dad dies. Worse, his friend Joe starts avoiding him. Francie is losing his hold on his sanity, which we see, and the people in town should see it too, but they don't.

I was expecting violence, but when it arrived I was shocked. This entire movie shocked me. This kid was let down by everyone in his life - relatives and priests, police, neighbors, parents of friends, everybody. Nobody reached out to help this kid. And he really needed help.

The movie is directed beautifully, which clever dialog, and a raucous, carnival-like soundtrack. The pace of the movie is brisk and cheerful, yet the tension builds. It's ominous. The acting is top notch (FYI, you will see a lot of the Harry Potter cast in their younger years here). I highly recommend it.