Boyhood is really about the father's coming of age
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Boyhood
Bronte_Sista — 9 years ago(September 25, 2016 09:27 PM)
Basically, the film is about immature feckless men who resist growing upexcept Ethan Hawke who finally comes of age at the end. He defines growing up as "castration" but succumbs to it anyway. He even admits that he is finally the version of a guy Patricia Arquette's character needed.. if only she'd had patience and waited for him to grow up.
-
Prelude-in-C-maj — 9 years ago(October 07, 2016 11:20 PM)
Yes, agreed; I've said this all along. The film is every bit as much about the father's arrested development as it is about the literal boyhood of the son.
However, I disagree that all Arquette's character needed was "the patience to wait for him to grow up."
Sometimes these types of men never grow up, and while the woman has hung in there "waiting," she's had a marriage filled with frustration and even loneliness. Especially in the case of musicians there's a saying, "golf widow." It comes from being married to a guy who's into his golfing and works all week then spends his whole weekend on the golf course instead of actually with his wife and kids, at home doing family things.
Musician wannabes like Ethan Hawke's character are notorious for this. They are never there, never available to a partner, their only focus is on their stupid little band and getting gigs and playing gigs and how they're about to be the next best thing..and that never happens.
Been there done that on both sides of the coin. It's dismal. -
Bronte_Sista — 9 years ago(October 08, 2016 04:34 AM)
I didn't say I thought she should wait. I said that he finally recognizes that if he had been a grown-up version of himself then the relationship could've worked. And basically, if you look at i,t all of her exes were different versions of "boyhood." I kept wondering if the film was making some generalization about men not growing up, or if it was making a commentary on the kind of women who end up surrounded by boy-men. You definitely see Mason growing up to be like his father.