Joe Warr, the widowed father of two sons, sums up his loneliness in one exquisitely simple sentence. He tells a friend he has plenty of people to do things with, but "I got no one I can do nothing with."

Warr is a fictional version of Simon Carr, who wrote a memoir called "The Boys Are Back," which has been turned into a movie of the same name by director Scott Hicks and screenwriter Allan Cubitt.

Like "Where the Wild Things Are," it revolves around a boy (even younger here) who is a natural at conveying dark moods, exhilaration and boyish buoyancy.

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'The Boys Are Back'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Clive Owen, Nicholas McAnulty, George MacKay
• Rating: PG-13 for some sexual language and thematic elements.
• Web site: www.boysarebackmovie.com/

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He is Artie (Nicholas McAnulty), the younger of two sons of sportswriter Warr. His first marriage in England ended in divorce and produced a son named Harry (George MacKay), while his second marriage in Australia ended when his beloved and young wife dies of cancer.

Trying to not dissolve in his own grief, Warr decides to take off with Artie, much to his mother-in-law's disapproval. "I think you're making a big mistake," she scolds, to which he responds, "It wouldn't be the first time."

It's during their road trip that Warr adopts "Just say yes" as his parenting mantra. He perfects that theory and later welcomes Harry into their Lost Boys-only home that looks like a candidate for TV's "Clean House." (Based on Carr's book, it appears the movie is spot-on in that regard.)

"The Boys Are Back" explores the most basic but important challenges of all: Warr attempting to regain his equilibrium, rear his sons, keep the peace if not the house, hold onto his job, and occasionally spend time with other adults.

True, divorced or widowed women face similar struggles every day but this is particularly poignant given Artie's tender age, Harry's status as a long-distance son and Warr's clumsy attempts to deal with temper tantrums and teacher conferences and a boss who is running out of patience. That last situation leads to a lapse that would seem avoidable but produces some dramatic moments and confrontations.

Mothers and protective parents may blanch at what Warr allows Artie to do. This isn't a parental primer but a personal, poignant story of a man who becomes a full-time father.

Owen is a regular fellow here, collapsing in tears or laughing conspiratorially with Artie and showing more colors in his actor's palate. Young McAnulty, whose whims and moods often drove the shooting schedule, is deserving of praise, as is MacKay as a teen suffering the sting of rejection.

Unlike Carr's true-life book, which takes his journey farther down the road, "The Boys Are Back" keeps the focus on the father and sons.

In a June 2009 story for The Daily Mail, Carr wrote that when a mother dies, "the world is ruptured in a way that we can't go back and fix. And that's what we have had to live with -- and without."

That is just what the movie so vividly conveys.

Opens today at the AMC-Loews and Manor theaters.

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