2024-02-05 15:03:12
Over the years we have seen a lot of series and movies based on successful books. Once upon a time, in the days when books were still read, this habit had a certain style, but it seems that today “based on the book of” has become a prestigious addition that no one really notices. If the film is successful, the success is often due to the choice to adapt successful books. If it doesn’t work, well, it probably just wasn’t enough. This is not the case with Netflix’s “A Boy Who Swallows a Universe”, an adaptation by John Colley (“Mumbai Hotel”, 2018) of a literary work that manages to surprise even those who are already used to it.
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“A Boy Swallows a Universe” is a series that takes you on the journey of coming of age of Eli Bell (Felix Cameron in the role of the boy, Zach Burgess in the role of the boy), a boy who grew up with a former heroin-addicted mother, and a current drug dealer stepfather. Eli’s brother, Gus (Lee Tiger Haley), is speechless following a childhood accident, but he spells out the words he wants to say in the air, most of them shrouded in a kind of prophetic fog. And perhaps you should warn in advance that the series itself will not give you all the answers, and not all the answers should be given. Because this is one of the only series that both tells a complete and complete story, with a beginning, middle and end, and also leaves the viewer room for interpretation.
Usually when there is a main character of a child on the screen, we know what awaits us – a coming-of-age story during which the child will discover all kinds of sides of life, until he becomes a mature boy who has learned from the whole story. We will live a little with the little boy, get to know the experiences he has had, and immediately after that we will jump to another actor who plays the same character a decade or so later. And although the series follows this path, it is unlike any coming-of-age story you know. According to Trent Dalton, who wrote the book, the book is made up of fifty percent imagination and fifty percent reality, but if even ten percent of what we see on the screen is true, it’s still pretty shocking.
The casting of Felix Cameron as Elie Hild is an amazing choice. There are not many child actors who manage to reach an emotional depth like Cameron. While watching, I tried to think about the work that the directors did with the boy, about how they managed to get out of him such a wide emotional range, and create a character that is so easy to connect with, mainly thanks to his maturity. Eli is not a typical child – he curses and looks life in the eye, a kind of boy-man that life forced him to mature prematurely. When he goes to help his stepfather with drug deals, he realizes the potential and the advantage of being a boy. Lyle, the drug dealer felt he was also the boy’s stepfather, charming in his own way, and doing what he had to to give his family as much as possible. Life hits Eli in the face every time, and it always hurts – whether it’s the bullies who harassed him as a child, or witnessing his father being kidnapped while having his finger cut off. wait, what? This was the point where I realized that this series has no stops.
Even if it is a little grandiose, “A Boy Swallows a Universe” is a series that does not spare the viewer the pain and sorrow of life, and this is the first time I have seen on television such explicit and blatant attacks on a child on the screen. Until that moment it never occurred to me that I would see such a scene in the series, and here I understand – it is going to be a difficult journey. Eli’s journey goes through a lot of points that are not very comfortable to watch. More than once I found myself cringing uncomfortably on the sofa, but this is also a very rewarding and satisfying series, which on the one hand does not spoon-feed the viewer, and on the other hand manages to make him leave satisfied, and with a little hunger for more.
I don’t know if “A Boy Swallows a Universe” will get the stage it deserves. This is an Australian series after all. And even though it’s based on a non-sequel book, I have some desire to see how Eli Bell’s life continues. It is a total of seven chapters long, but it contains a lot, and manages not to feel too overloaded with details. And there are not many series like it on television – only one season that presents a tight and uniform story that does not spread everywhere, and still manages to make the viewer turn the gears. And at the end, even to give the viewer an adequate reward for surviving the more shocking parts. Eli Bell’s difficult life can make for an unpleasant viewing experience at times, but that’s how things are born that you didn’t expect to see in a coming-of-age series. I already ordered the book, and you?
“Ild Bule Universe”, now on Netflix
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