After two movies, the jury is still out on Joel Edgerton as a director. After catching fire with 2015’s surprise hit The Gift, Edgerton tried his hand with material based on a true story, adapting and writing the screenplay for Garrard Conley’s novel Boy Erased. To be perfectly transparent, I had extremely high expectations for this film. This was a novel I read a couple of years ago, well before I knew that a movie based on the story was in the process. I enjoyed the book, and when I saw that the cast was to include Edgerton, Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, and Russell Crowe and that it was already being mentioned in Oscar discussions before it was released, I was more than excited. However, I knew that the topic of this film was controversial. When I read the book, I was not dissatisfied with the ending but felt rushed quite a bit. Boy Erased was one of my ten most anticipated films of the year. And like a few others in my ten most anticipated films of the year (namely First Man), it ultimately failed to impress. A film that should have been ripe with emotion left me completely unaffected.
Boy Erased follows the story of Jared Conlon (Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea, Mid90s) and his experiences at Love In Action, a gay conversion program. Conlon, in 2004, was a freshman in college when he grew close to Henry (Joe Alwyn – Operation Finale, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), one of his dormmates. The pair shares a love for running and attending church. One night, Henry sleeps over when Jared’s roommate is away from school. In the middle of the night, Henry rapes Jared. Afterward, a distraught Henry instantly apologizes profusely, telling his victim that he has a problem and telling him that there was a guy at his church that he’s done “bad things,” almost refusing to take ownership and responsibility for what he has just done.
Both boys have a thick Christian background. We don’t know much about Henry, but we see him inviting Jared to church almost as soon as they become acquainted. Henry’s church is very different than Jared’s, which is far more traditional. Henry’s church plays Christian rock music with people raising their hands in the air and dancing all around. Jared’s is quiet and strict, with heavy organs and congregation singing, which is the only real break from traditional preaching. Jared’s father, Marshall (Russell Crowe – Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind), is the church’s pastor in the small, conservative town. He also owns the local Ford dealership. He and his wife Nancy (Nicole Kidman – The Hours, The Others) are well-to-do and have a perfect life. Marshall is heavily involved in the life of his one child, boasting proudly about Jared’s play in a high school basketball game, even though he only got into the game for the last five minutes after his team won by a blowout. He’s so proud that he gives his son his early birthday gift, a brand-new Ford vehicle.
The balance and transition between present-day events with Jared at Love in Action and the past events that led him up to this point in his life is what Edgerton does best. Though the “past” events are no more than a year in the past, there is still a clear distinction between what is happening in the present and what has happened in the past. And I’m unsure of the techniques that allow this to be successful. Jared looks the same. His personality, ironically, hasn’t changed that much. Maybe it’s because I read the book, but I was always aware of the movie’s progression and sequencing. Edgerton succeeded, whereas Felix Van Groeningen (Beautiful Boy – one of my other most anticipated films of 2018) failed. This may have helped keep Boy Erased from being a complete disaster.
In addition to the direction, the acting was quite good. It wasn’t exceptional. I had seen that all four names (Hedges, Edgerton, Kidman, Crowe) had been mentioned in early Oscar discussions before the film’s release. With the film’s release, much of that talk has died down. I don’t think any have a legitimate case. Hedges’ performance was surprisingly average. I thought this was going to be the movie that propelled his name into the realm of mainstream America, much like My Week with Marilyn did for Eddie Redmayne back in 2011 (note: I still think that this could happen with Ben is Back, one of his other 2018 movies, still to be released). Speaking of Ben is Back and Beautiful Boy, Kidman’s performance will likely be lumped summed with that of Julia Roberts (Ben is Back) and Amy Ryan (Beautiful Boy), who are also playing mothers grieving over their troubled teenage sons.
An actor of Crowe’s caliber wasn’t needed in this film. His character was, but anyone could have played it. That’s not to say Crowe was awful. He wasn’t. Looking larger physically than ever, Crowe’s Marshall plays a father tormented by his life for his son, his love for the Bible and his obedience to God. Worried that he might report Henry for raping him after Jared distances himself from the man who violated him. This makes Henry extremely angry. He is paranoid that Jared will tell school officials or local authorities what he did. So, instead, he calls Jared’s mother and pretends to be a counselor at the university. He tells her that Jared seems to be gay, and there is cause for concern. Jared, defending himself, tells his parents that the man who called his mother is not a counselor and just a person that Jared knew from school who had confessed to him that he raped a man at his church and was afraid that Jared would report. But this small action sends off a whirlwind of emotions in Jared’s after Jared does admit having same-sex attraction.
He is taken to Love in Action, where a foreboding man named Victor Sykes (Edgerton – Warrior, Loving) welcomes a new group “of patients?” to his gay conversion therapy center. At orientation, in a very vocal way, Victor demonstrates that a crumpled dollar still has the same worth as a crisp dollar. A ripped dollar bill can be taped together to be whole. In his opinion, homosexuality is a choice, much like playing football is a choice. Those participating will only discuss the outpatient program (9 a.m. – 5 p.m. each day). I don’t think they ever say where this center is (maybe they do), but it is far enough away from home, which means that Jared and his mother share a hotel room each night. We meet other young people in the facility, but none are memorable. From the book, I remember him talking about others in the program more than the film does here, which makes perfect sense from a time standpoint.
Of course, Jared doesn’t want to have same-sex attraction and would prefer the ease of having a life where he is attracted to women. But it doesn’t ever feel like he believes this Love In Action will work, and he only does so because his mother and father make him. He doesn’t see himself as broken or crumbled like a dollar, but he is made to believe that he is less of a person because of the therapies he and others are put through and the way that the counselors are constantly berating them with derogatory terms and not giving them a chance to fight back. It prompts Jared, a natural writer, to eventually speak out against the program and gay conversion therapies in general, especially those that force minors to attend.
Now, I know what I just gave was not a review but a scene-by-scene. And the reason for this is to discuss what this movie is saying and not what it told. As a whole, there isn’t much of a story here. Or, rather, this story could be told thousands of times. As the credits roll in Boy Erased, we learn that in 2018, there are 34 states in our country where gay conversion therapy can be forced upon minors and that this has affected 700,000 youth. That is the story that Jared (or the author, Garrard Conley) wants to be known. I’ve said so often and so many times in my reviews that, despite what the Bible says and despite what many others say, I don’t believe that being gay is a choice. Gay rights are fundamental to me. I have a lot of friends who are gay. Some are open about and living amazing lives with their same-sex partner, some are at various stages of struggling with it, some are in denial, and some are deciding not to live an LFBTQ lifestyle because of their religious beliefs or for other reasons. My heart bleeds for those struggling with it, and I want those feelings to go away. And, for those who wish those feelings to go away, I want that, too. But I’ve been around it enough where it doesn’t seem like that happens. I don’t think it’s a choice. I believe sexual orientation is something that you are born with. And I don’t think it is a sin if you act in those ways. Some of the most loving I have ever seen are woman-woman or man-man. Denying someone the right to love someone they were destined to be with is wrong. I love the hashtag #RightToLove. As a straight man who deals with a couple of different mental disorders, I could not imagine having the added weight of being gay in 2018 on my shoulders. And by that, I don’t mean that it is a weight on every gay person’s shoulders.
I am aware of how I process things, and the way some people throughout our country treat gays is awful. Many in this country treat gay people similar to how we treated African Americans for God knows how long and similar to how we treated people of the Muslim faith around 9/11. There are awful people in this world. But never has awfulness been identified by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. It is in our time of history that various states in our country have allowed same-sex marriages. One hundred years from now, our descendants will be looking at us the same way that we look at our ancestors who were so awful to African Americans in the 1960s, before, and unfortunately after, including today. They will wonder what the hold-up was. Why did it take dozens and dozens of years for the last state in our union to grant same-sex marriages after the first state in our union did? And, as a Christian, if you want to say, “Well, the Bible says…”. The Bible says many things but says more than anything to love. God is Love. And if someone were to ask me how I can be a Christian and support the rights of gays, I’m never going to get into a discussion with them. I’ll say, “If you think I can’t be a Christian and support gay rights, then I guess you’re a better Christian than I am,” and then walk away. Let them sit there and ponder. It’s nothing to me.
So, going back to Boy Erased, I appreciate Conley’s story and the voice that he put behind it. I appreciate Edgerton trying to bring the movie to life. I appreciate the attempts of Edgerton as a director and the whole cast to show their struggles with this controversial therapy. But for me, I found this movie to be underwhelming. There just wasn’t a lot of substance, and whenever I felt like we were moving in a particular direction, Edgerton reigned the chains a little bit and went in another direction. He’s still learning his craft as a director. He’ll get better. I didn’t feel like I learned much I didn’t already know by watching this film, and I would say the same thing had I not read the book. It’s a Netflix DVD watch at best.
Plot 7/10
Character Development 6/10
Character Chemistry 6/10
Acting 7/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 7/10
Sound 9.5/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
74.5%
C
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