Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.
If you decide to go see “Beautiful Boy” due to name alone, let me assure you; the film has nothing to do with John Lennon or the song of the same name. A harrowing tale of the parents of a young man who shoots up his school, “Beautiful Boy” gets marks for taking a side of a story most people would stay away from. On the other hand, it never really chooses what story it is trying to tell.
Maria Bello and Michael Sheen are in a marriage that is slowly coming to an end. With their son away at college, they have moved into separate rooms in the house and Sheen is already looking for an apartment. The morning after speaking with their son on the phone to discuss the family trip Bello is planning as a last ditch effort to save the marriage, news breaks of a shooting at their son’s college. When the doorbell rings, the news goes from bad to worse, to the absolutely unbearable and unbelievable. These parents have now lost their son, in more ways than one. The film that follows could be an accurate exploration into the minds of those parents out there whose children have cause this type of tragedy. Or maybe it is just the Hollywood version, there are only so many people who would know.
When life has to continue for these traumatized souls it felt like I was about to watch a movie about how the death of a couple’s son, bought them closer together, saving their marriage. This is where the film goes, but in between it plays the blame game and hits every other typical note you would expect to see. An exploration into why their son did what he did is exactly what a lot of the characters explain as something that can not be answered, so the film plays by the same rules. But still, through the characters actions and feelings, that is all they seem to do; try to figure out why. Everyone blames themselves and then each other and while they are not pointing at the kid who pulled the trigger, it is all the same argument. It is even harder to really latch onto any of these arguments when it feels that the reason he even did shoot anyone, was to make his parents love each other again. On a side note, for a movie that really is about Bello and Sheen, “Beautiful Boy” just feels like a misguided title.
A somber film like this one it going to be filled with a lot of tears and broken characters. Maria Bello does the best job of portraying a real character you can relate to. It is hard not to get a little emotional when she breaks out crying after being forced to go out for dinner weeping, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” as she peeks up to see if anyone is watching her. It is always nice to see Sheen not playing Tony Blair or another famous British figure and he does well to hold up the stature of a disconnected soul who just wants to move on, but it is nothing that moved me out of my seat in astonishment.
In an odd way, “Beautiful Boy” feels like something people expect to be good and award worthy on subject matter alone. It has its moments to triumph but never moves into a stature of memorable film.
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