Boy Erased (Film)
boy_erased_r1_20180606_01_R3Nicole Kidman stars as Nancy Eamons and Lucas Hedges as her son Jared Eamons in Joel Edgertons BOY ERASED, a Focus Features release.Credit: Focus Features
In 2004, at the age of 19, American Garrard Conley was sent by his parents to a conversion therapy program to rid him of his homosexual feelings. This true story is now a film called ‘Boy Erased.’
The amazing Lucas Hedges (‘Lady Bird,’ ‘Manchester by the Sea’) plays Garrard. He is a young man growing up in a small bible belt community in Arkansas. His father Marshall (Russell Crowe) is a respected pastor in the local church while his mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) believes in everything her husband says. But Garrard is given a choice by his parents when he tells them he is gay: either agree to attend the church-support conversion therapy program where he will have to go to a camp with similar young adults, or risk losing his family, a family that he is quite close to. Garrard has no choice but to go through therapy. Garrard is happy being gay – even entering into relationship with a fellow student at college – but it is his religious upbringing (and a stern father) which helps him make the decision to go to therapy.
Once he is at the Love in Action gay conversion therapy assessment program, he meets fellow young men like himself (including director and actor Xavier Dolan, and Joe Alwyn – at the time of this writing Taylor Swifts boyfriend). They all struggle to not come to terms with they way they are, meanwhile all the time guided by the chief therapist Victor Sykes (writer and director of the film Joel Edgerton). But of course Garrard has urges that he can’t control, while his parents feel that for him to lead a happy life is to lead the life of a straight man.
The real Garrard Conley, of course, luckily survived his time in the therapy program to write the book which is now this film, and it’s a very good film. Hedges, as always, is fantastic. One never knows what he’s thinking because of his inquisitive facial expressions, and he steals the movie from the two heavyweight actors who are playing his parents. Crowe is excellent as the self-righteous father but Kidman is both warm and tender as the mother who loves her husband but perhaps loves her son a bit more. ‘Boy Erased’ is at times heartbreaking, but for the most part it’s triumphant.
Dr. Steven Murphy, played by Colin Farrell, is a surgeon in a nameless U.S. city. He’s got, at least it seems, a picture perfect life. He’s married to the beautiful Anna (Nicole Kidman), who plays dead to satisfy his sexual desires, and two amazing children – teenage Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and younger son Bob (Sunny Suljic). But one day a young man by the name of Martin (played to perfection by Barry Keoghan) starts showing up at Steven’s hospital. Martin takes an interest in his work, but then starts showing up even when Steven isn’t there. One day Steven invites Martin over to his home for dinner, where Kim is immediately smitten with him and Bob wants to be his best friend. Barry is that easy to get along with, very friendly, wouldn’t hurt a fly, or so it seems. But Barry has other intentions, not good ones, that will grossly effect Steven’s family. It turns out that Barry’s father died on the operating table at the hands of Dr. Murphy, so he wants to get revenge. He does something to Kim and Bob to make them deathly sick (frustratingly it’s not clear exactly what he does to them), but Bob and Kim wind up in the same room at Steven’s hospital, and test after test after test doesn’t reveal the true cause of their illness. Dr. Murphy starts getting desperate and kidnaps Barry to try to get him to confess to what he did, but it might be too late as Steven’s perfect family and his good reputation as an excellent doctor could all come crashing down, not to mention he could potentially lose his children.
It’s been a great year for movies, and it all culminates on Sunday night with the award show to end all award shows – the Academy Awards. Herewith are my annual predictions as to what should win, and more importantly, what will win:
This year’s BFI London Film Festival looks to be one of the best in recent memory. The schedule is loaded with lots of must-see films by A-list filmmakers and A-list stars.
The Opening Night Gala on Wednesday October 5th is ‘A United Kingdom.’ David Oyelowo plays Sir Seretse Kharma, an African president who marries a white English woman – it’s a postwar relationship that shocked two continents. Rosamund Pike plays the English woman; the film is directed by Amma Asante (‘Belle’).
Expect ‘La La Land’ to garner lots of acclaim during next year’s awards season. It’s Director Damien Chazelle’s (‘Whiplash’) bitter-sweet love letter to Los Angeles and the golden era of Hollywood musicals, bringing together an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) and a struggling musician (Ryan Gosling).
Paddington Bear is now Paddington the Movie, and it’s very warm and fuzzy.
Christine wakes up everyday remembering nothing. She lives with a man who says he’s her husband, but she doesn’t remember him. One day she discovers the shocking truth about him, and the family she used to have, in the new film Before I Go To Sleep.
The Railway Man is based on the true story and best-selling memoir by Eric Lomax, a British Army Officer who has a hard time dealing with his war past when he was sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1942.
