British director John Crowleys film Boy A, based on the 2004 novel by Jonathan Trigell, is inspired by the notorious Jamie Bulger case. In 1993, in Merseyside, England, two 10-year-olds were convicted of murdering Jamie Bulger, aged 2, without any consideration of the social and psychological traumas that produced the boys offense. During the course of the trial and afterward, the British media spared no effort in portraying the pair as savages who were inherently and irredeemably evil.

Boy A explores, in the words of director Crowley, why people demonized these children. The film opens with Terry, a social worker (Peter Mullan), sitting across the table from Boy A (in this manner the British courts conceal the identity of child defendants), who, at age 24, has spent most of his life in juvenile detention. Terry is encouraging Boy A to choose a name as part of establishing a new identity. To help launch his second life, Terry gives the newly named Jack Burridge (Andrew Garfield) a pair of Escape brand sneakers. Escaping, in all manner, the glare of a vindictive world, will be Jacks mode of existence.

This reality is reinforced by the vicious newspaper headline, Evil comes of Age, announcing Boy As release from incarceration. With his life dependent on a successful reinvention, Jack, nervous and awkward, begins a job. Entering into society has its hazards: the closer he gets to people, the greater the threat of exposure.

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