Times were watching, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, when the film reminded me of my Catholic School days not in the way that it might endorse the film, but because it invokes questions. It has its parts where the movie accurately portrays its young protagonists preoccupied with sex, rebellion adolescence, and too many other moments when it overshoots, overriding a screenplay striving for a dramatic impact. The absurdity of the climax is so reckless that it renders us incapable of feeling any of the emotions that need to be felt.
Regardless, this is a film that deserves credit for attempting something sincere and positive. It follows the narrative of a small town in the 1970s and describes the life of young boys studying at St. Agatha’s School who constantly suffer the authoritarian regime of Sister Assumpta(Jodie Foster) and come up with very imaginative ways of getting back at her. Meanwhile, the kids are maturing, starting smoking and drinking, and knowing more about inappropriate things for their age, far more than they would care to understand.
The protagonists are Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin) and Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch). We follow primarily through Francis’ perspective as the boys and two friends spin a fantastical tale around a comic book they co-create, titled The Atomic Trinity, which features characters like Captain Asskicker and easily identifiable caricatures of Sister Assumpta and Father Casey (Vincent D’Onofrio), the perpetually distracted chain-smoking pastor-cum-soccer coach who is a little too dreamy to be a priest.
There is a bold animated sequence strategy to show the exploits of the Trinity: The regular episodes of the author’s tedious life are intertwined with animated scenes (directed by Todd McFarlane) that glorify superhero and myth concoction streamlined by Marvel comics of that era. (These sequences were so superbly animated and their accompanying music so upbeat that the sudden ‘jerk’ into the reality sequences was somewhat shocking.) Sister Nunzilla, the protagonist in the book’s villainess role, is a caricature of Sister Assumpta who, along with the stern demeanor, has an artificial leg.
Doesn’t the sister with less money deserve better treatment? She deserves better according to the film, but the film fails to make its case. Sister Assumpta certainly is very strict, but we are supposed to know that she actually cares about her students and does not hate them. Some of her acting choices, although Foster has no reward since the children do not seem to share the good expressions. If she doesn’t, then what does it matter for us to be taught about Sister Assumpta’s softer side? The children are intended to represent typical young teenagers, but they are so creatively rebellious and reckless that it seems as though the script is pushing them. Francis feels both the troubling impulse of idealistic love and lust directed at his classmate Margie Flynn, and they share those sweet first kisses that you smile about. Then she reveals a family secret that I feel is too profound for this movie to handle because it casts a shadow over everything else that follows.
If the secret begs too much explanation so does the ending. These boys seemed to be caught up in an unending spiral of increasingly elaborate practical jokes, and their most recent, which included trying to capture a cougar from the zoo and bring it to Sister Assumpta’s room, is a case of both stupidity and danger that is beyond the imagination of most, including these children. Their earlier caper was the theft of a larger-than-life St. Agatha figure from a pedestal set quite high on the wall of the school, and This seems to be some sort of limit on what they are permitted to do. The cougar overdoes it too much, and results in an ending that is more emotional than it deserves to be.
Another clue that the script is striving to achieve its full effect is the thread running through the boys’ obsession with the William Blake books Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. I can understand that boys of this age group may admire Blake but not these boys. And I doubt Sister Assumpta would regard Blake as a threat. What we sense here is Jeff Stockwell, the writer, trying to incorporate material he likes and that which does not support him commercially. (There is one more reference from the culture in the film, at least none was meant and I am seeing it At the beginning of the film, the boys stand a few inches into the danger zone of a telephone pole they are trying to blow up to the time when it falls down to the ground. It made me think of Buster Keaton who was similarly poised to get smashed by a wall that fell on him but from the outline of an open window.) There is no gainsaying that the film has time. Jena Malone (Life as a House, Donnie Darko) gives a performance that is almost exterior to the film. She symbolizes the coming storm of maturity.
The boys are exuberant and energetic. They remind us of how children can get excited about everything. The dynamic sequences illustrate perfectly the spirit of their fictitious comic book. Throughout the film, Vincent D’Onofrio reflects internally and portrays Father Casey as a man who tries his best to help but lacks a basic understanding of how to help. Perhaps, the film would have been better had it been less drastic in the quests of its heroes, more accommodating to reasonable versions of rebellion. It strives too hard and exceeds the bounds of reason of its own reality.
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