Jo & The Boy - "A Below Average Emotional Drama" * Detailed Review *

[AfsalTouchriver]

Jo And The Boy - Review
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"A Below Average Emotional Drama"
#Rating - 5.5/10

Detailed Analysis
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"If You Can Dream It,You Can Do It" - A pretty mediocre take on this n-times juiced topic with an edge of fantasy and sci-fi to it - now that's 'Jo And The Boy' for you !! Written and directed by Rojin Thomas from the director duo who created a refreshing children's film with "Philips And The Monkey Pen",this 165 minutes long drama suffers largley due to an unconvincing storyline and half-hearted direction which spoils an intriguing premise with the onset of the second half,where the story turns into an abusurd clash between the creator and her creation,a theme that has been presented much better by numerous contemporary film makers in the past.

The initial portions were really interesting and Manju Warrier alongwith Sanoop manged to win the hearts with their innocent performances in the backdrop of visually stunning Kodaikanal that was captured colorfully by Neil D' Cunha.Eventhough lengthy at around 85 minutes,the first half was quiet breezy and enjoyable in comparison with the lifeless latter half which dragged painfully and ended on a half note.

I do believe that the success of a movie lies in making the unconvincing look convincing on screen,where the movie lets the viewers down particularly with the progress of the poorly conceived climax portions.The terrible fight sequence involving Manju could have been totally avoided.Violin rendition towards the end was soothing,but the composition reminded me of some of recent works by Lindsey Stirling.

Moments of 'WOW' are far and few in this too lengthy narration of 165 minutes that feels much more due to sluggish pace and the artificiality of the narrative of the post interval portions,in particular.

Manju Warrier & Master Sanoop did their part really well,but couldn't help revive the movie after a point due to the hollow and lifeless storyline with glorious loopholes spread throughout.Manju in particular was charming and looked stunning in most parts playing Jo whose just into 30s convincingly reminding of her yesteryear characters like 'Aami'from Summer In Bethlahem,yet another notable performance after Rani Padmini.Among others LaluAlex,Kala Ranjini,etc were good.The guy who played Jo's friend,Appan,was interesting.

The background score was impressive,but the songs by Rahul Subramanian except for 'Ponveyil Veezhave' fails to qualify for repeated hearing.As mentioned before Neil D Cunha's cinematographhy was top-notch,so was the art direction and coloring which reminded of Philips And The Monkey Pen.

Overall,Jo & the boy is at best a one time watch for the impressive performances by Manju & Sanoop.

Some +Ves
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|| Beautiful Visuals || Perfect BGM || Neat Performances ||

Some -Ves::
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|| Poor Second Half || Unconvincing Storyline & Sequences ||

Verdict::Jo And The Boy started of well,but lost its stem half way through,being letdown by a poorly written screenplay and altogether unconvincing nature of the narration.Give it miss or try,its upto you!
_Afsal

|| Theatre::Sangeeth Cinemas,Kottakkal || Date::27/12/15 || Showtime::06:30 PM || Status::20%
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[aneesh mohanan]

Thanks Afsal

[kitchu]

Good review. I thought if they chopped off lot of portions in the first and second half and included the introduction of the cartoon character in the first half itself, film could have been much better. The director, it felt at times, seemingly had no intention to finish the story. It was dragging on and on and on.

[maryland]

thanks...
padam koluthi...

[Saathan]

thanks afsal

[4EVER]

Thanks Afsal for the review

[ClubAns]

Thanks for the review.....................

[Ferno]

thnx afsal...!