MILO by Berend Boorsma and Roel Boorsma

Directed by - Berend Boorsma, Roel Boorsma

Written by - Berend Boorsma, Roel Boorsma, Heather Imani

Starring - Lorcan Bonner, Stuart Graham, Jer O'Leary, Charlotte Bradley

 

Ireland/Netherlands, 2012

 

In Ancient Greece, Milo was the name of a legendary wrestler. In this Dutch and Irish co-production, Milo is the name of a ten year old kid having to deal with a mysterious skin condition and an oppressive father figure. In a gloriously rebellious act, Milo leaves home against his parental wishes to join his class on a camping trip. 

 

The debut feature film of the Berend and Roel Boorsma is executed like a simplified Charles Dickens tale. It feels unfair to knock them down. With a low budget and a script development stage which, alone, took almost two years, they did the best they could. However, the film is out of focus, particularly when it comes to targeting its audience. Milo is too cold and sinister to appeal the average child cinema goer, but too cartoonish at heart to appeal to the mature one. This is something that feels like it's more down to the filmmakers' inexperience than a stylistic choice.

 

The screenplay is imperfect, wasting its potential creativity into frustrating anonymity. The character development seems untrue, and the film takes a while to kick off, which only happens after the introduction of the Irish pension age version of Bonnie and Clyde are introduced as the 'accidental kidnappers' of the kid and who grow fond of the kid even after his mysterious condition start to show. It is the characters of Star and Mickie that provide the vast majority of moments of comic relief and absolute tenderness.

 

Visually, there are some impressive moments. Milo putting the cream on his face is quite unique and memorable, and a very promising start. But all too often, the Boorsma give into cold lighting, which sucks the warmth even out of the sweetest of moments, but also does little to heighten the film's intensity. This is where the performance by Stuart Graham as the evil and vain father figure comes into play. His face conceals all the disgust and embarrassment, as well as an insane belief of himself as true perfection. This is made all too clear from the very beginning, when streaming a video ad on the internet, and likening himself as a professional TV presenter, going through all the cheesy motions. On the other hand, Lorcan Bonner's performance is true, concealing all the fragility and delicacy of a ten year old boy, but also his innocent excitement of discovery.

 

Milo's refusal to give into conventionalities, genre boundaries and cliches of more mainstream films of the kind is admirable. It could even be the beginning of some bizarre 'chidren arthouse' film movement. However, truth be told, its rather slow pace and lack of focus make it too hard to truly connect to it. Still, as far as the Boorsma brothers go, there are some interesting foundations to build a good filmmaking career upon.

 

- Matt Micucci

 

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