Banff

This movie takes place in England, and was true-to-life in that it was about the struggle of a small town to overcome its destiny to limit the males futures to the mines. Catherine Cookson has written quite astutely about this situation, and the movie dealt with it humourously and graphically. Emancipation from this dreary life is hard-fought for the boys of this town, even as they try to deal with their own feelings of being different. Billy's father expects him to be a "certain way", and when he discovers a part of himself that doesn't want to conform to this standard, his father becomes very fearful and reacts in a typically violent way. My son was hoping that this wasn't a "sappy" movie in the beginning, and the struggle between Billy and his father was an education to him, and touched something inside him about his relationship with his own father. I recommend this movie to all "coming of age" teenagers, with the hope that they will follow their own hearts, and not be led by another's dreams.

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