In fact, De Niro so steals the picture with his domineering performance that he tends to put the rest of the proceedings out of sync. It's a powerful performance but in many ways a wrong performance, which causes the film as a whole to become unbalanced.
Set in the 1950s, "This Boy's Life" begins with Toby (played very well by young Leonardo DiCaprio) and his mother, Caroline (Ellen Barkin, who is also quite good), as they drive cross-country to Salt Lake City (filmed mostly in Ogden, dressed for a '50s look). There, Caroline hopes to find peace, leaving her ex-husband back East with their other son, a never-seen but often alluded-to older brother who is attending Princeton and living the money life Toby can only dream about.
Things don't work out, however, and it isn't long before they head for Seattle, where Caroline settles in as a single working mother and Toby begins hanging out with the wrong crowd.
It is also there that she meets Dwight (De Niro), a loopy blowhard that Toby sees through immediately. But he's also a charmer, wooing Caroline in a hopelessly old-fashioned way that she seems to find appealing.
These early scenes are the first indication that the film is a bit wrong-headed, since the audience begins to wonder immediately what she sees in this guy - he's so obviously off-center, revealing a hint of his dangerous edge.
But Caroline is so taken with Dwight that she marries him and, with Toby, moves into Dwight's life in a small rural town where everyone knows everyone. She is hopeful that Toby will abandon his delinquency and they will begin to lead a "normal" life.
At this point, the film virtually drops Caroline as it sinks into a series of confrontations between Toby and Dwight, each more violent than the one before. And it gets so harrowing in places that we don't just miss Caroline and wonder why she doesn't intervene, we begin to wonder if she isn't an accomplice in her passivity. Worse, Toby's acts of vandalism and theft are treated so lightly that the film paints him purely as a victim.
No, Dwight has no right to strike him, especially with the force displayed here. But committing crimes shouldn't be so off-handedly dismissed, either. The latter might be more acceptable if the point of view stayed with Toby,but there are scenes that he obviously cannot be witnessing, so that theory soon flies out the window.
And though it's apparent that Dwight is gradually getting crazier, he was pretty crazy to begin with. Wouldn't it have been nice to get into these characters more, to help us understand what makes them tick?
The ultimate effect is of black-and-white stereotypes, with Dwight as the monster who must be brought down. The result is a few effective moments but overall disappointment.
"This Boy's Life" is a pencil sketch that pretends to be a full-blown oil painting.
It is rated R for considerable violence and profanity, a graphic sex scene, nudity and a few vulgar moments.