A movie I watched long ago--I can't remember the title. It was based on a book.
It's set sometime between 1965 and 1969. This boy, his mother and his older (half sister) move to a new area. The boy's father is dead, but the boy idealizes him, puts him on a pedestal. The mother is engaged to some sort of bearded professor type (or she dates a lot of men. I'm not sure which). His big sister has red or reddish hair and is pretty bratty and mean toward him. The boy wants to go to some kind of academy--Maybe Military related--but he isn't good enough on the test and no one believes he can do it. He meets up with a professor after riding his bike and stumbling across the man's property, years earlier. Eventually the man agrees to tutor him, to help bring his skills up to par to pass the exam. After catching his sister in bed with her boyfriend and embarassing her, his sister reveals the truth: That his father wasn't all he was cracked up to be--Either the father had a mental illness or was an abusive drunk, I forget. She shows him papers he never saw, that detail about his father's ways and (Maybe) even his death. Also, at some point, it is revealed that years earlier, the professor who had been helping the boy was (falsely) accused of inappropriate contact with another student and had lost his job, which is why he lived a generally secluded life. Apparently the former student died in a car crash. After this, the boy is forbidden to see the professor. He takes the exam, passes, and years later at his graduation the professor shows up at the end.

Does anyone remember the name of the movie I'm describing? For the life of me I can't.

A movie I watched long ago--I can't remember the title. It was based on a book.
It's set sometime between 1965 and 1969. This boy, his mother and his older (half sister) move to a new area. The boy's father is dead, but the boy idealizes him, puts him on a pedestal. The mother is engaged to some sort of bearded professor type (or she dates a lot of men. I'm not sure which). His big sister has red or reddish hair and is pretty bratty and mean toward him. The boy wants to go to some kind of academy--Maybe Military related--but he isn't good enough on the test and no one believes he can do it. He meets up with a professor after riding his bike and stumbling across the man's property, years earlier. Eventually the man agrees to tutor him, to help bring his skills up to par to pass the exam. After catching his sister in bed with her boyfriend and embarassing her, his sister reveals the truth: That his father wasn't all he was cracked up to be--Either the father had a mental illness or was an abusive drunk, I forget. She shows him papers he never saw, that detail about his father's ways and (Maybe) even his death. Also, at some point, it is revealed that years earlier, the professor who had been helping the boy was (falsely) accused of inappropriate contact with another student and had lost his job, which is why he lived a generally secluded life. Apparently the former student died in a car crash. After this, the boy is forbidden to see the professor. He takes the exam, passes, and years later at his graduation the professor shows up at the end.

Does anyone remember the name of the movie I'm describing? For the life of me I can't.


Sounds like The Man Without A Face starring Mel Gibson.

Sounds like The Man Without A Face starring Mel Gibson.


First thing I thought of.