The memories of a small town and a boy trapped between love and fear.


Kiefer Sutherland won a Genie Award for his performance in Bay Boy. In 1937 Nova Scotia, Donald Campbell (Sutherland) lives with his dirt-poor parents (Liv Ullmann and Peter Donat). His folks hope that Donald will enter the priesthood, but he isn't keen on this. For one thing, he harbors "unnatural" feelings towards a nun; for another, one of the local priests has made sexual advances towards him. Donald prefers to spend his time with pretty sisters Saxon and Dianna (Leah Pinsent and Jane McKinnon) -- but even this becomes untenable when the boy witnesses a homicidal hate crime committed by the girls' father, police constable Tom Coldwell (Alan Scarfe). It is in this intolerable atmosphere that Donald finally comes of age, which is the point to which the film is leading. Weighed down with an unnecessarily complex script, Kiefer Sutherland comes off quite well in Bay Boy; the other performers -- even the estimable Liv Ullmann -- tend to be one-note stereotypes.

Donald Campbell (Kiefer Sutherland) is a sensitive teenage boy coming of age in a dark and uncertain time for both his community and life. His mother (Liv Ullman) wants him to continue his education after high school and become a priest, but Donald is more interested in girls than prayerbooks. After an unsuccessful attempt by a visiting priest to molest him, followed by his first sexual experience with a local girl, Donald politely informs his mother (without revealing why) that he is not going to be a priest.

Meanwhile, when he is not in school, Donald spends his time helping his father (Peter Donat) dig a Bootleg Pit; helps care for his older brother, Joe, who was the brightest boy in his grade until he got sick and was left disabled; and pursues Saxon Coldwell (Leah Pinsent), one of police Sergeant Coldwell's two daughters. Sergeant Coldwell's wife died a few months earlier.

Donald lives a hard-working but fairly happy life, until the night he witnesses Sergeant Coldwell shoot and kill the Jewish couple who are his landlord and landlady. The chief of police is a relative, so Donald feels comfortable admitting he saw the killing but he says he did not see who did it, because he is afraid of Sergeant Coldwell - especially after Sergeant Coldwell lets Donald know that he is aware that Donald did see who committed the murder (because he could not have seen the shooting without also seeing who did it). When the Sergeant comes home and finds Donald (innocently) visiting with his daughter Dianna, he snaps mentally and tries to kill the boy - with the result his secret is revealed and he is arrested.

The film also depicts the daily lives of the eccentric locals and tight-knit families.

Release Date: February 15, 1985

Distrib: Orion Pictures