Beautiful Boy (2011)

It can be hard to evaluate a film such as this. Its striking realism is both a gift and a curse: seeing its protagonists in their naturally empty and shell-shocked state for much of the film doesn't make for entertaining viewing - nonetheless its emotional scenes pack such a weighty punch, heightened by Sheen and Bello's terrific performances, you can truly feel their agony.While the fallout from the unconscionable number of tragedies that inspired this film tends to focus mainly on the perpetrator, then on the victims and their families, "Beautiful Boy" wisely forces its audience to think about the side of the story that is rarely heard.

I watched this film last night, two weeks after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, where some virtual bystanders are still wringing their hands about how "normal" and "sweet" Suspect #2 was. The parents are angry and either in utter denial or (at least with respect to the mother) in silent conspiracy, claiming that the brothers were framed and they could not have been terrorists. The characters and plot line in "Beautiful Boy" resemble the Sandy Hook horror even more closely. Imagine that Nancy Lanza was not killed by her son and that Peter Lanza still lived at home, unhappy and on the verge of moving out. Their anguished discussions, how they individually deal with the guilt and grief, their desperate investigation of their son's life for clues as to how and why, the blame and heartbroken accusations that they hurl at each other - - these are so spot on that the film can be uncomfortable and unnerving. The movie also masterfully captures the wide spectrum of others' reactions. The brother and sister-in-law who offer their home and as much love and sympathy as they can, but still emit occasional flashes of blame and fear for how their own son could be impacted by their presence. A young author who the wife believes is a friend, until she finds him hunting through her son's belongings for material for the book he wants to write. The open house held for the home, where media vultures, neighbors with cameras, and the thrill-seeking curious thoughtlessly devour the cookies the wife baked, hoping that they would make the house smell better. Michael Sheen and Maria Bello play the roles of husband and wife with precision and depth. Moon Bloodgood (soon to return in the upcoming "Falling Skies" season) seems somewhat dispassionate and impersonal in her interactions with others as the sister-in-law, but that is a criticism I have for most of her performances. The scene where she expresses frustration to her husband about Maria taking over control of the home comes across as rehearsed. Alan Tudyk (currently in "Suburgatory") as the brother is more sympathetic to the plight of his family, but also displays a limited range of emotion. The son, played by Kyle Gallner, is mesmerizing in his few moments of screen time, and I feel that the movie would have been much stronger if we were permitted to see a little more of his college environment and the days leading up to the shooting.However, I recognize that is the very point of the movie - - we want to understand how people make these terrible decisions, but we never can see enough evidence because ultimately there is nothing that can justify such evil. The parents, who are arguably the ones who should have the best chance of understanding their children's motivations and conduct, are often as lost and confused as the rest of the world, with the added component of trying to comprehend the degree of their own culpability. Those dynamics are nicely captured in this film.

Watch this if....you want to see some first rate acting hold together a dull storyline. Acting/Casting: 7.5* - Honestly, this is the only part of the movie that is worth your time. Bello and Sheen are really good and portray their parts with some true passion. The supporting cast is good, but those two really shine.Directing/Cinematography/Technical: 5.5* - I don't know how to explain it, but I was utterly bored. I watched an hour in the first viewing and turned it off due to the dull content and finished it the next day. The second day didn't provide much more fulfillment either.Plot/Characters: 5.5* - A married couple is having issues and their son is having some issues as well. More focused on their own troubles, the couple must deal with the aftermath that ensues after their son decides to kill himself and others in a college mass shooting incident. Sounds intriguing, but really is a letdown.Entertainment Value: 5.5* - I don't care that it was an independent film and that it was a character study, the movie was plain boring. The acting is the only thing that makes it watchable and that alone doesn't carry it. Watch with caution and not late at night.My Score: 7.5+5.5+5.5+5.5 = 24/4 = 6.0Email your thoughts to [email protected]

I will be honest, I saw this film listed on the movie channels and looked at the information and upon seeing it had Maria Bello and Michael Sheen in it, I wanted to watch it. The fact it was about parents dealing with the fallout of their sons college shooting pulled me in all the more.Having just watched it, I wanted to have a look what others made of it. There is a review that picks at how the film was shot, and the bleakness of colours/background, but for me that made the film better. I think sometimes films working on low budgets actually make it better, there is something to be said for going a little old school.The drab colours reflect what emotional turmoil the character's are going through, the fact that their world had literally plunged into unexpected and unwanted chaos when it wasn't perfect to begin with. We have two people who are already strangers to one another, there is an emotional and physical divide between them, and then this bomb hits their life and everything becomes isolated, bleak and numb. I think the directing, the photography and the actual film itself really encapsulates this feeling. Of course this is a highly sensitive issue, and there was a lot of talk about We Need To Talk About Kevin, in which Tilda Swinton delivers a wonderful performance. I think these are very separate films offering different perspectives. For Beautiful Boy, you don't have the son available to speak about his actions like the other film, you only get a couple of tiny snippets, the film doesn't focus on him or the shooting at the same time that it is entirely focused on them, but via the parents' reaction.I think this film stands out because there is no way to determine any wrong doing, and it feels that there really isn't any. People do demonise the parents after events like this, and here we have two people who are so completely stunned that they go through a series of emotions. They pull together, they turn on each other, they leave each other, they cry, laugh and shout. They have the double whammy of not only dealing with their child's death, but the fact that he had it in him to kill so many people.I don't think that Maria Bello and Michael Sheen deliver a well acted chemistry, I think they deliver a superb estranged numbness that would be evident in parents like them. It is a silent, subtle thing to act - and to also act out physicality in emotional ways, again - superb. They really turn the turmoil into a tangible assault for the watcher, you are compelled to follow them as they go through both individual and combined experiences and processes.I think if you are a person that enjoys films for what they are, films that don't need anything but good actors with a good storyline to be brilliant, you should watch this. It is a great step into looking behind the scenes of the families that have to go through these types of events, where they may not have been perfect parents but they were by no means bad ones either. Just everyday ordinary people that raised a son, that loved him, that worried about him from time to time, but had no idea that he was capable of murder.If offers no solid reason for his actions, I think that would detract from the film because though the storyline is about him, the film is about them. I also think you're meant to decide for yourself why things like that would happen, whether it is somebody in extreme emotional hurt that turns it outward or is innately bad or evil. Perhaps audiences are not ready to face that, there unfortunately is never a good time to examine this subject head on in this way, but Beautiful Boy offers the closest examination I've seen so far.