Review of Beautiful Boy (2011) by Maksim B — 02 Apr 2012

A devastating melodrama, Beautiful Boy follows the steps of another almost classic drama (Rabbit Hole) and explores the human sorrow, grief and tests the emotions of the audience. Although it has the potential to be at least as depressing and dark as other outstanding melodramas, this delivery fails to become something more than a movie going in circles without reaching any point of catharsis or giving answers to the multiple questions it asks.

A similar story as Rabbit Hole, the drama goes about a lost son, who in this case happens to conduct a massacre in his college and then to kill himself. The story takes off quite fast and after a very short introduction to the family problems of Maria Bello and Michael Sheen, there comes an evening phone call which opens the movie for what is going to happen. The devastation of the loss is depicted in a powerful enough manner to damper any positive mood. In this, Beautiful Boy is quite a success.

However, after the first part of the dramatic events and the day or two of aftermath, director Shawn Ku decides to show how Kate and BIll cope with the reality while trying to save their family. So, we are getting caught between two dramas: the one of the lost son and the one of a relationship falling apart. The problem is that this results in Ku's inability to work on the two main characters and to develop any emotional relationship between his characters and the audience. After one hour of watching, I realized that I was not giving a s... about Maria Bello and Michael Sheen's drama. And this is the worst that could happen to a melodrama - not to care about the suffering of the characters. It is not a question of performance (Michael Sheen is at his normal very solid level), but mostly an issue of not developing the story in any direction. The story is just stuck and goes in circle without achieving any moment of personal catharsis or relieve.

Despite the overall positive reviews from the critics, Beautiful Boy is a bit of disappointment to me. Probably this is a result of the fact that it does not match Rabbit Hole and in comparison to it, Ku's movie is a pale attempt to achieve the same result, while lacking the ability to really devastate the audience. A passable movie for some, a disappointment to me.