The Boys of St. Vincent

Loosely based on the Mount Cashel scandal of a few years back, this two-part Canadian television docudrama investigates the nightmarish world of a Catholic-run orphanage where the priests in charge just can't seem to keep their hands off their youthful wards. The first 93 minutes give us a glimpse into the hell that is St. Vincent's orphanage. Kevin Reavey (Morina) is the 10-year-old focus of the story, a boy who has become Brother Lavin's (Czerny) “boy” by way of intimidation and abuse. Frequently he's called to the Brother's office to participate in all sorts of pedophiliac acts, but when Lavin beats him so severely that he's sent to the hospital (thanks to the orphanage's kindly janitor), the police are called in to investigate charges of abuse. It turns out that Lavin wasn't the only Brother involved in the scandal, nor was Kevin the only boy abused, although the charges are eventually hushed up in a government conspiracy of epic proportions. Cut to 15 years later. Lavin has been arrested, pending the reopening of the case against the Brothers of St. Vincent. It's here we see the ripple effect that the old abuses have caused. Kevin is unable to keep a girlfriend because he's wary of sex, while some of the other boys have developed drug and alcohol problems. Lavin, for his part, has managed to raise a family and sire two sons but, by now, time is running out for his happy home. Banned after its first screening on Canadian TV, The Boys of St. Vincent bears little resemblance to any American version of such a story. The horror is filmed with admirable restraint, with director Smith opting for a less-is-more approach that only reinforces the tragedy of the events depicted. It's hardly an uplifting movie, and it ends on a distinctly sour and abrupt note, but The Boys of St. Vincent is far and away one of the best publicly funded looks at institutional child abuse ever to come out of television, Canadian or otherwise.