November
23
Tags
Boy Erased (2018)
Boy Erased (2018) is one of those films that quickly make you angry because of the way it shows several evils converging simultaneously. It is disturbing to see a gay teenager manipulated by parents to alter his natural sexuality, but to see this presented as a direction from God then carried out in a commercially driven gender reassignment clinic is material for a horror movie. Worst of all, it is not only based on a true story, but a postscript informs us that 700,000 Americans have gone through this process and it remains legal in most states.
We meet teenager Jared (Lucas Hedges) on his first day at the mis-named Love in Action gay conversion camp. How he got there unfolds in a series of flashbacks, but they predictably include a hostile parental reaction when he is betrayed into disclosing his gayness. As the son of preacher and car salesman Marshal Eamons (Russell Crowe), and his compliant hairdresser wife Nancy (Nicole Kidman), Jared is told that God will never love him nor can he share a home with his parents until he is ‘cured’.
The rest of the film focuses on the camp’s strategy for conversion and Jared’s traumatic confinement of unknown duration. On day one, the director Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton) informs participants that their ‘condition’ has been caused by poor parenting and he presses each of them to compile a “moral inventory” of people or events that caused their illness. The atmosphere turns sinister when the group is expressly forbidden from telling anyone, including parents, about what is discussed. Those who prove difficult to ‘cure’ face the possibility of doing the extended one-year program, and the camp’s commercial interests ensures that the facility remains full.
As the film is the memoir of a camp survivor we know that Jared will be OK so the narrative tension curve rarely rises. The link between conversion treatment, depression, and suicide is given a nod, and there is an assurance from a doctor that homosexuality is not a sickness. However, there are many unexplored human rights issues about extreme conservative religious efforts to brainwash young people into a life of shame and repression. These are left off-screen and the opportunity to expose advocates of the practice is lost. Gone also is the chance for an investigative ‘follow the money’ narrative. Jared mentions to his mother in barely a sentence that the longer he stays the more she pays, an issue that is surely worth more attention.
With big-name actors, one might have expected a brave examination of this odious violation of human rights, but the film has instead chosen to step lightly. Despite these reservations, it is a well-made, important, and engaging film that shines some light in a very dark place.
Director:Joel Edgerton
Stars:Joel Edgerton, Nicole Kidman, Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe
CineMuseFilms 
I’m eager to see this film, because I am a big fan of Edgerton. I’ve never seen him give a bad performance. Sounds like it’s good, but not ground-breaking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You summed it up well Berthold: “good, but not ground-breaking”. Thanks for commenting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just saw this last night, and I will be pressed to write a better review. Crowe and a Hedges were grand, but I am not a Kidman fan, yet. I,too, felt that “ follow and money” and more perhaps more editing would have made a better film.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the comment; you are right about some editing being needed, and the acting did feel perfunctory despite the talent pool. But its the money trail I would have been most interested in.
LikeLike
Excellent review Richard. It sounds as if there were stones left unturned and the film suffered by this lack of honesty. This is disappointing when it could have been so much better.
Perhaps if the film were not based on a true story in would have ramped up the tension?
I haven’t seen it myself and will probably leave it until it’s released for overnight hire.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Anita. Maybe the review could have acknowledged the limitations set by the source memoir, but a braver director would have found ways around this.
LikeLike
Maybe he didn’t want to invite too much controversy considering the subject is controversial enough. The film would have suffered as a consequence.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes indeed. I doubt that religious conservatives will be rushing to see this film.
LikeLike
A strong review, as always. I haven’t seen the film. Given the topic, perhaps a conservative approach is the best that we can expect from one of the first films (that I know of, anyway) to broach the subject. Perhaps this film will spark the interest of more directors who are willing to push deeper into the complexities that you find lacking. Another film to put on my to-see list.
LikeLike
Have you, perchance, seen the series or the stage production of Angels in America? When it first came out, people get encouraging me to see it. I finally watched the Netflix series and found that it lived up to my friends’ recommendations. Changing social values is a slow process…and as we have discovered in America, even once you think you’ve softened prejudices, someone peels the bandage off and the gaping wound is revealed….alive and kicking. I alternately laugh and weep.
LikeLike
I guess it takes a German to interpret the confounding aspects of being American. I bet even Bertolt Brecht would be confounded by America today, though.
LikeLike
I agree with you that Boy Erased is one of those films that make you angry. What I find missing is a groundswell of emotions to sweep the film to its conclusion. Nonetheless, a lot of families would benefit from watching this together.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree’ and thanks for commenting.
LikeLike