Netflix’s adaptation of this bestseller is incredible

Boy Swallows Universe
★★★★★
Netflix

Journalist Trent Dalton’s 2018 semi-autobiographical novel is a literary phenomenon; the fastest-selling debut novel in Australian history, it has since sold more than a million copies worldwide. A 2021 stage production of the book became the best-selling show in Queensland Theatre’s history.

Felix Cameron as Eli and Phoebe Tonkin as Frances in Boy Swallows Universe.Credit: Netflix

This much-anticipated adaptation comes, then, with an in-built audience – and big expectations. Fans of the novel should not be disappointed; Dalton was heavily involved in the seven-part series as an executive producer and his compelling working-class fairytale has been lovingly recreated, with an incredible ensemble cast, period-perfect production design and a cracking soundtrack.

A distinctly Australian coming-of-age story set in a 1980s suburbia rarely depicted on screen, Boy Swallows Universe is the tale of 12-year-old Eli Bell (an amazing performance from Felix Cameron; in later episodes Zac Burgess plays the older Eli), a scrawny kid from Brisbane’s outer suburbs, with a more complicated home life than most.

Eli’s alcoholic dad (an unrecognisable, brilliant Simon Baker) has left, his loveable rogue stepfather Lyle (Travis Fimmel) is a heroin dealer, his mum, (Phoebe Tonkin), a former junkie, ends up in prison and his brother Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), refuses to speak – and might also have some kind of clairvoyance; he can seemingly see snippets of future events.

Then there’s Eli and Gus’ occasional babysitter, Slim Halliday (Bryan Brown playing the most Bryan Brown role imaginable), a convicted murderer who swears he didn’t do it. Slim, based on a real person, is as famous for escaping Boggo Road prison twice in the 1950s as he is for his alleged crime – and was a real friend of Dalton’s family.

Lee Tiger Halley (Gus), Bryan Brown (Slim Halliday) and Felix Cameron (Eli).

Eli also has a prison pen pal – Alex, a former bikie gang sergeant-at-arms (rapper Adam Briggs) – whose letters provide a useful and entertaining narrative device. Alex counsels Eli about everything from dealing with bullies to encouraging his aspiration of being a journalist. But before Eli can realise any dreams – including buying a house for his mum and keeping his family together – he must make it through adolescence.

After helping Lyle with his heroin business, Eli ends up losing a finger, trying to avenge a murder, breaking in to a prison to see his mum, and uncovering a bizarre crime racket in severed limbs. Granted, the latter adventure (featuring Anthony LaPaglia as a white-suited crime lord) is utterly silly, but by that point in the story, you will be so invested, you’ll forgive the more fanciful aspects.

Dalton’s book was shot through with a streak of magical realism which the series successfully leans into, without quite tipping over into an entirely different genre.

As in the book, the mood is a tightrope walk between despair and childish optimism; the brothers’ lives are shaped by trauma, but this sprawling story is infused with humour and great warmth, even for the adults who have let them down.

For a story that features drugs, violence and domestic abuse, Boy Swallows Universe – part bildungsroman, part gritty crime caper – it’s also filled with joys both great and small.

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