THE NEW BOY - Mark Reviews Movies

The New Boy, Vertical

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 22, 2025

No one knows or cares to find out where the eponymous child of The New Boy comes from, who he is, or what he wants and needs. That's the basic nature of the laws and policies toward the Aboriginal people in Australia for more than half a century, as indigenous children were removed from their families in the name of "protection." It doesn't matter to those in power if this particular boy has a family, a home, or a way of life in which he has been raised until he's taken and forced into a Catholic monastery for schooling, where he will be "civilized" like the other children there.

We understand why the two nuns currently in charge of that mission, the groundskeeper of the place, or even the other kids, whose new names and customs have been compelled upon them, don't have much interest in this boy. The real question is why the movie itself, written and directed by Warwick Thornton, doesn't seem curious about him, either.

His actual name, for example, is never revealed, because this boy, played with silent depths by newcomer Aswan Reid, doesn't speak or understand English when he first arrives at the monastery, as World War II rages. The only thing we know of his life before that moment is seeing him attack a random white man, presumably in an act of self-defense while being taken him from his home, and being knocked unconscious by another man's boomerang. At the mission, the boy is seen as an orphan, although whether or not his parents are actually dead is irrelevant. This policy has made an orphan of the boy either way.

From there, the child is cared for and taught by two nuns. One is Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett), an enigmatic and fascinating figure on several levels. She's something of a rebel in this place and time, because the priest in charge of the monastery died about a year prior and, in order to keep the place running the way she believes to be best, has spent that time pretending that the man is still alive.

She is kind to and patient with the boys in her charge, which one could see as a blessing for the children, if not for fundamental injustice and abusive nature of the policy Eileen and religious institutions are helping to implement. Eileen might want what's best for the boys under these circumstances, compared to what a new priest might do, but she still works to erase the identities, customs, and beliefs of these boys, in order to transform them into "civilized," Christian young men.

The other nun and groundskeeper, by the way, are of Aboriginal descent and, presumably, have gone through a similar process of assimilation. Sister Mum (Deborah Mailman), as she encourages the boys to call her since they no longer have mothers, and George (Wayne Blair), who has the children of assorted ages work with him at the monastery, can see something in and about this new ward—something that makes him stand out from the others but that must, apparently, remain hidden from Eileen.

The New Boy, as he is only known for almost the entirety of the story, has magical powers. On his first night at the monastery, he hides under his cot, rubs his fingers together, and produces a hovering spark that floats around him. In Thornton's presentation, the little flame is both actual proof of some mystical power, since the boy shows himself capable of healing others with it, and an obvious metaphor for the cultural spark within this child.

How the first part of that plays out essentially makes the New Boy something of a cliché, especially since he is less a character and more a concept within the story. How the second part ultimately resolves here, as Eileen's patience is tried and her desire to bring the New Boy into the fold increases, is fairly predictable, albeit still tragic. If the character did exist in this tale as more than a magical figure, we might have felt that tragedy on more than a conceptual level.

However, Thornton's movie remains on that plane throughout, with some admittedly tantalizing ideas about how the New Boy sees his new surroundings and the faith into which Eileen is trying to bring him. A turning point of the story is the arrival of a new crucifix for the monastery's chapel. When the New Boy sees that carved wooden image of Jesus of Nazareth nailed to a cross—with a crown of thorns on his head and a gash in his side—and in fatal agony, his instinct is one of sympathy. While everyone else accepts the metaphor of the crucifix and the theological necessity of Jesus' death, the New Boy sees a human being injured, in pain, and whom he has the power to help.

All of this is compelling on an intellectual level, to be sure. However, The New Boy is so thin in terms of its characters, especially its title one, and broad in its ideas that the actual impact of its narrative remains in the arena of the theoretical.

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