☆☆½
The intentions of everyone involved in Boy Erased were noble and sincere, of that I have no doubt. You can see it in almost every frame of this earnest, muted drama that seems custom-crafted for awards-season audiences. It's a well-shot, well-cast, well-acted film with a topic almost guaranteed to elicit sympathy among Oscar voters. There's only one problem with Boy Erased: It isn't nearly as good as it should be.
Do not fault the actors. Academy Award Nominee Lucas Hedges is in seemingly every other movie these days for a reason: He's engaging and believable and committed. Academy Award Winner Nicole Kidman dons a wig and accent that would make Dolly Parton proud and continues to be maybe the most interesting actress working in film (not to mention TV). Academy Award Winner Russell Crowe brings an added air authority and offers more proof that Australians can do flawless American accents -- as does writer-director Joel Edgerton, who co-stars in his film, which is, as Oscar tends to love, Based on a True Story.
It might be cynical to assume that Oscar gold was the primary intention behind the film, of course. I believe (honestly, I do) that Edgerton and his cast and his crew wanted to make a serious, artistic film about the insanity of anti-gay "conversion therapy" and the horrors suffered by those who are forced to go through it. They have succeeded but only to point. Boy Erased is indeed both serious and artistic. It's also predictable, unsurprising and frustratingly unmoving.
How could Boy Erased be so staid? Every frame of this film should be awash in anger and outrage, not in muted shadows and sallow colors that underscore just how serious the movie is. Every moment of what happens inside the walls of the "therapy" center should unnerve the viewer with the terror of psychological torture, but instead comes across as pedantic, even sedate. Except for a few moments, it all seems frankly polite.
Jared Eamons (Hedges) goes to the "Love in Action" center because once his parents learn that their 18-year-old son is gay, they give him an ultimatum: Live by our set of Scripture-based morals or be disowned. That alone should be a devastating moment, but is given barely an extra beat in Edgerton's straightforward-but-well-meaning screenplay. Edgerton also plays the head of the center, a hard-talking, hardcore Christian who himself has "overcome" homosexuality and is convinced that a program of praying, intervention and manly activities can help gay teens become straight.
If you've ever seen Frank Oz's In and Out starring Kevin Kline, you'll remember that film's funny, satirical "Exploring Your Masculinity" sequence, which ends with Kline doing a joyous, exuberant dance to "I Will Survive." That's Boy Erased, but with no sense of humor at all, even though the concept is the same: one "straight" man yelling at a gay man to stop being gay. Played for laughs, it makes a point, but when stripped of its humor, and of the freedom and sense of self-worth that are part of the coming-out process, it's all overwhelmingly, aggressively dour, and lacking in drama, pathos and empathy.
In part, the film lacks an anchoring point of view; the movie recreates and presents scenes that no doubt actually happened, but without a clear sense of this being Jared's story, it has a curious detachment. And although it boasts an intriguing supporting cast, including YouTube influencer Troye Sivan, multi-hyphenate performer Xavier Dolan, Flea, and, most memorably, Cherry Jones as a deeply understanding doctor, none of them (except Jones) are given much at all to do.
Worse, Jared is afforded no real identity, something that it's beyond even the impressive talents of Hedges to overcome. His sexuality is a plot point, not a key aspect of his character, and other than a brutal, devastating rape and a few chaste kisses with another boy, there is no sense at all that he views his homosexuality in any meaningful way.
While there is no requirement that a film about a young gay man needs to be made by gay filmmakers, Boy Erased desperately an authentic gay voice, the way last year's mesmerizing Call Me By Your Name benefitted from director Luca Guadagnino's gay experience even though it starred two straight actors. Straight writer-director Edgerton really, sincerely believes in what he's saying here, but beyond the message that gay "conversion" therapy doesn't work (as if anyone watching the film might believe otherwise), it's unclear what exactly he wants to accomplish with this film.
Boy Erased ends, as does this Oscar season's equally discouraging Beautiful Boy, with a set of statistics. Both movies might get the facts right, but they seem to know nothing about the experience of those who go through the horrors they depict. Boy Erased means well. But that's not nearly enough.
Viewed November 10, 2018 -- ArcLight Hollywood
2010
Do not fault the actors. Academy Award Nominee Lucas Hedges is in seemingly every other movie these days for a reason: He's engaging and believable and committed. Academy Award Winner Nicole Kidman dons a wig and accent that would make Dolly Parton proud and continues to be maybe the most interesting actress working in film (not to mention TV). Academy Award Winner Russell Crowe brings an added air authority and offers more proof that Australians can do flawless American accents -- as does writer-director Joel Edgerton, who co-stars in his film, which is, as Oscar tends to love, Based on a True Story.
It might be cynical to assume that Oscar gold was the primary intention behind the film, of course. I believe (honestly, I do) that Edgerton and his cast and his crew wanted to make a serious, artistic film about the insanity of anti-gay "conversion therapy" and the horrors suffered by those who are forced to go through it. They have succeeded but only to point. Boy Erased is indeed both serious and artistic. It's also predictable, unsurprising and frustratingly unmoving.
How could Boy Erased be so staid? Every frame of this film should be awash in anger and outrage, not in muted shadows and sallow colors that underscore just how serious the movie is. Every moment of what happens inside the walls of the "therapy" center should unnerve the viewer with the terror of psychological torture, but instead comes across as pedantic, even sedate. Except for a few moments, it all seems frankly polite.
Jared Eamons (Hedges) goes to the "Love in Action" center because once his parents learn that their 18-year-old son is gay, they give him an ultimatum: Live by our set of Scripture-based morals or be disowned. That alone should be a devastating moment, but is given barely an extra beat in Edgerton's straightforward-but-well-meaning screenplay. Edgerton also plays the head of the center, a hard-talking, hardcore Christian who himself has "overcome" homosexuality and is convinced that a program of praying, intervention and manly activities can help gay teens become straight.
If you've ever seen Frank Oz's In and Out starring Kevin Kline, you'll remember that film's funny, satirical "Exploring Your Masculinity" sequence, which ends with Kline doing a joyous, exuberant dance to "I Will Survive." That's Boy Erased, but with no sense of humor at all, even though the concept is the same: one "straight" man yelling at a gay man to stop being gay. Played for laughs, it makes a point, but when stripped of its humor, and of the freedom and sense of self-worth that are part of the coming-out process, it's all overwhelmingly, aggressively dour, and lacking in drama, pathos and empathy.
In part, the film lacks an anchoring point of view; the movie recreates and presents scenes that no doubt actually happened, but without a clear sense of this being Jared's story, it has a curious detachment. And although it boasts an intriguing supporting cast, including YouTube influencer Troye Sivan, multi-hyphenate performer Xavier Dolan, Flea, and, most memorably, Cherry Jones as a deeply understanding doctor, none of them (except Jones) are given much at all to do.
Worse, Jared is afforded no real identity, something that it's beyond even the impressive talents of Hedges to overcome. His sexuality is a plot point, not a key aspect of his character, and other than a brutal, devastating rape and a few chaste kisses with another boy, there is no sense at all that he views his homosexuality in any meaningful way.
While there is no requirement that a film about a young gay man needs to be made by gay filmmakers, Boy Erased desperately an authentic gay voice, the way last year's mesmerizing Call Me By Your Name benefitted from director Luca Guadagnino's gay experience even though it starred two straight actors. Straight writer-director Edgerton really, sincerely believes in what he's saying here, but beyond the message that gay "conversion" therapy doesn't work (as if anyone watching the film might believe otherwise), it's unclear what exactly he wants to accomplish with this film.
Boy Erased ends, as does this Oscar season's equally discouraging Beautiful Boy, with a set of statistics. Both movies might get the facts right, but they seem to know nothing about the experience of those who go through the horrors they depict. Boy Erased means well. But that's not nearly enough.
Viewed November 10, 2018 -- ArcLight Hollywood
2010
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