The Boys of St. Vincent Reviews

This two-part made-for-TV Canadian movie proved one of the most emotionally devastating films released in the US in 1994. THE BOYS OF ST. VINCENT was inspired by a notorious case involving the alleged sexual abuse of dozens of children by Christian Brothers in a Catholic-administered orphanage. Part One is set in 1975 Newfoundland at St. Vincent, a nightmarish institution where the authoritarian Brother Peter Lavin (Henry Czerny) extorts sexual favors from young boys. Part Two opens 15 years later in Montreal, Quebec, with the arrest of Lavin, now married and the father of two pre-teen sons. THE BOYS OF ST. VINCENT does not flinch from depicting the physical and emotional horrors endured by the boys but, despite the sensational subject-matter, its approach is restrained and non-exploitative. The film is neither an anti-Catholic nor homophobic diatribe but, rather, a dark and impressively complex critique of the abuse of power. Henry Czerny gives a terrifying but exquisitely modulated performance, roaming the corridors under his command with a crucifix jammed in his belt like a six-gun. Watching this martinet try to "mother" a small child is genuinely unnerving. Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of BOYS, though, is the emergence of Lavin as more understandably human in the second half. The verdict on Lavin is not disclosed, but it hardly matters; when the survivors on both sides are left so damaged, the idea of legal justice being served is small consolation.