Review of Boy Erased (2018) by Reuben M — 03 Jan 2019

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST (from earlier in 2018) told the story of gay conversion therapy in a way that, while often very flawed in its execution, was full of life, zest, biting humor and when things turned darker, it really had an impact on the viewer. BOY ERASED tackles, on the surface, similar subject matter but is dour, humorless, grey and ultimately unmoving.

Lucas Hedges is the best reason to watch...but between this film and BEN IS BACK, he REALLY needs to get out of this kind of character and maybe show some comedy chops (he hinted at them in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA). He's very good at these very smart but very troubled late teens / early '20s roles, and certainly does well in BOY ERASED. Brought up in a very religious family, he is eventually exposed as gay, and at first is just as troubled and unhappy about this as his parents (Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, two Aussies, being directed by fellow Aussie/co-star Joel Edgerton), he is sent to gay conversion therapy "camp." Life there is a serious of often redundant themes where they attempt to brain-wash these (mostly) young folks into believing their tendencies are bad and can be overcome. It's always a bit disturbing to see these scenes, and their clear wrong-headedness...but in some ways it feels like a period piece. I know this kind of "therapy" still goes on, but the movie makes it feel like something that happened in the past. It DOES take place a couple of decades ago, and somehow, it feels trapped in that time...so that we watch it from a remove. Not with a "oh my God, it's so horrible what these kids are going through" visceral reaction...but with a "oh dear, weren't we once so ignorant" self-congratulation.

The most interesting parts of the film really involve Hedge's mom finally coming around to the fact that making her son hate himself is not the right move, and her growing acceptance of her son. But Kidman's performance is so mannered, so "look, I can make myself into a dumb hick" focused that almost all the potential power of these scenes is wasted. Crowe almost pulls off his role, and his final scene with Hedges has an odd, awkward strength to it...just as this dad would likely have shown and felt. But for too much of the film, Crowe isn't given very much to work with; he's mostly on the edges of the story. Director Edgerton plays the leader of the camp, and he actually does a pretty good job (and I'm not a huge fan of his)...his character is so matter-of-fact in his proclamations about homosexuality, it's almost chilling. His most effective scenes are the most quiet; when he starts yelling and carrying on, he becomes more of a cartoon character.

So, it's a very uneven film that I think though it's subject matter was so gripping and urgent that laziness of film-making and writing would be swept under by its power. Everyone tries hard; everyone misses more than they can get away with. Hedges continues to impress, but his character's beats are not terribly compelling.

BOY ERASED is worth seeing, but it is not transformative or terribly memorable.