The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Richly drawn drama
With conversion therapy as its backdrop, ‘Boy Erased’ focuses on compelling story of young gay man and his parents
Given that it would seem to be fertile dramatic ground, it’s surprising the concept of conversion therapy largely has been ignored by the world of cinema — especially when you consider that many in the Hollywood community surely would take issue with the ideas that homosexuality is a choice and one that needs to be corrected.
The well-received but relatively little-seen “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” dealt with it earlier this year, as does the solid new drama “Boy Erased.”
Directed and adapted for the screen by Joel Edgerton, who also plays a supporting role in the film, “Boy Erased” is based on Garrard Conley’s coming-ofage and coming-out memoir, “Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family.” (Officially, the movie is listed as inspired by the book, as the names of characters, including Conley’s, were changed from their real-life counterparts by Edgerton.)
“I wish none of this ever happened,” Lucas Hedges’ Jared Eamons tells us at the beginning of the film. “But … I thank God that it did.”
God plays a major role in the Arkansas home of Jared’s family. Jared’s father, Marshall (Russell Crowe), is a Baptist preacher, and his mother, Nancy (Nicole Kidman), is a devoted Christian, as well.
During one of his father’s church sermons, we see a cute girl giving Jared the eye, and he looks away uncomfortably. A subsequent event will illustrate his confusion over his sexuality to an even greater degree.
Edgerton has crafted “Boy Erased” in a nonlinear fashion, so we know early on Jared enters a conversion program — where items such as his phone and personal journal are kept from him during the hours he’s checked in — and throughout the film see more experiences that led to that decision by his parents. You can understand this filmmaking choice, but it also hurts the film’s momentum and can lead to some disorienting instances for the viewer, it not always being immediately clear when something is happening.
Edgerton portrays Victor Sykes, the leader of the conversion program, who tells participants they have been trying to fill “a Godshaped hole” in their lives with homosexuality. He hammers home that being gay is a choice, comparing it to choosing to play football; when a football player is done playing the sport, Sykes argues, he is no longer a football player.
While Jared and his family believe he’ll be spending 12 days in the program — nights are spent with his mother in a nearby hotel — it becomes apparent Sykes has other ideas.
While Sykes and those who work under him can be seen as at least borderlinevillainous — an employee of the program portrayed by rocker Michael “Flea” Balzary calls Jared a “faggot” at one point — Edgerton clearly has tried to avoid having clearly drawn bad guys as much as possible.
The strongest aspect of “Boy Erased” is, in fact, its family drama. Even while taking what is likely the wrong action with their son — leading to a potentially scarring experience — there is no suggestion that his parents do not care deeply about him. As written by Edgerton and performed by Crowe (“Gladiator,” “The Nice Guys”) and Kidman (“Lion,” “Big Little Lies”), Marshall and Nancy feel like real people trying to solve what they see as a real problem. To them, their son being homosexual is a crisis.
Hedges — an Oscar nominee for 2016’s “Manchester by the Sea” who also was affecting playing a character who proves to be gay in last year’s “Lady Bird” — gives a less-is-more performance as Jared, typically being the less-dominant player in a scene. He mostly sits and listens, wearing a face that shows all his confusion. And thus when Jared does get angry a few times, it is particularly effective. He is particularly good during an ordeal Jared has at college that proves to be traumatic for a couple of different reasons.
Likely due in part to the nonlinear structure, “Boy Erased” unfortunately loses some steam along the way, its first hour being more compelling than its second. Still, it keeps you invested in the family throughout, culminating in one compelling scene with Nancy and an equally but very different one with Marshall.
Edgerton obviously has no love for the type of conversion program that is at the heart of “Boy Erased,” and he certainly has something to say about the qualifications of the people who conduct them. But all of that takes a backseat to a rich, believable story about a young man and his parents.
Make plans — in ink — to see “Boy Erased.”