Are there crimes so terrible that concepts like forgiveness or redemption don't apply? Does the past always have to hinder future possibilities? Can people really become "a new creation"?

Boy A opens with a shot of a young man (mid-20s) who acts as though he were much younger. We don't know him yet, but he seems like a pleasant person. He doesn't even have a name yet. He's told he can choose any name he wants, but it's a tough decision for him. We wonder what his story is—is he mentally challenged? As the man who is talking with him is going over various things he'll need to know, suddenly the boy shouts out, "Jack!" That will be his name.

Jack is truly a delight to watch. He is excited about the life he is beginning. We don't know it yet, but soon we will, that he has spent the last several years in juvenile prison for a crime he was involved in as a child—a very heinous crime that filled the papers at the time. Now he is getting released.

Terry, his caseworker, knows Jack well and has every hope that Jack will be able to make it in the outside world. He understands that Jack is not the same person as the child who got into trouble. He tells Jack at one point that that child is dead. Jack is shy and gentle. He is loyal and loving. It is a delight to watch him make his way in this new world.

As the story unfolds, Jack begins working, makes friends and even gets a girlfriend. But as we watch Jack's growth, we get flashbacks to his childhood (as Eric Wilson, known as Boy A at his trial) and eventually to the crime itself. It is hard to reconcile the Jack we are growing to love with Eric. Actually, Eric doesn't seem all that bad, but he is adrift. He finds a friend in Philip, who seems to have a great deal of bottled up anger. The chemistry between them leads to catastrophe.

In a sense, the viewer is like most of the people in Jack's life. The film has a measured pace that allows us to get to know him slowly. Only Terry knows about Jack's past. His co-workers and girlfriend just know Jack. Jack feels burdened by his secret. He longs to tell his girlfriend, but Terry tells him "Jack has done nothing to tell about"—a reminder of the difference between Jack and Eric.

If his friends knew the truth, would it affect their opinion of him? Does it affect our opinion? The storytelling is masterful in the way it draws us to Jack so strongly before it introduces the darkness of Eric's past. It is hard for us to see them as the same person. Jack strikes us as being totally innocent. We can't imagine him doing anything evil.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" While the film shows us nothing of any religious experience in Jack's life, the idea of being a new creation (even with a new name) is spot on. Indeed, everything "Eric" has passed away; see, everything has become "Jack."

As viewers we are ready to see that newness as the reality of Jack's new life, but for the world Jack lives in, that might not be the case. If word were to get out that he is really Eric, the world around him—perhaps even his friends—would only see the past, not what he has become. They wouldn't understand that Eric has died and found a new life in Jack.

Coincidentally, I saw this film the same week that Susan Atkins was denied a compassionate release from prison to be able to be with her family as she died from brain cancer. Atkins was one of the women in Charles Manson's Family. She was convicted of taking part in horrendous murders. While some killers might well be set free under such circumstance, it is hard to consider that happening with any of the Manson Family. Their crimes were of such a magnitude that special approaches are needed. I don't disagree with the parole board's decision. But I wonder if we were to get to know who Atkins has become—if we were able to see that the old has passed away and someone new has come—we might not think differently.

What does it take to forgive someone their past? How can those with terrible pasts ever find redemption? Are we willing to let reconciliation truly be a part of our lives and our world? Jack's new life depends on it.