After watching Beautiful
Boy, I know my emotions got completely played with, but, strangely, I'm
okay with that.
Beautiful Boy follows the story of a couple on the brink of separation as they
struggle to accept their son's killing spree and subsequent suicide. The film
is a little long, and some people might find it a tad boring, as the woman
sitting next to me loudly and frequently proclaimed. I think that at its core
it deals with a difficult subject and tries to draw attention to a side of
violence that most people usually overlook. Everyone remembers the families of the
victims, but people rarely think about the family of the offender.
The topic is, quite clearly, heavy. The progression of the film reminds me of
the stages of grief - logical since the parents are struggling through their
own stages of grief to accept their son's actions and death. Parts of Beautiful Boy are intentionally funny.
Parts made me want to cry. Some other parts made me want to throw things and
yell at people. I knew this film was going to be emotionally difficult to watch
due to the plot, and I'm glad to see that the director treated the subject with
due respect and dignity that I can appreciate. Nothing is too over the top, and
the actors are fully capable of expressing a very wide range of emotions that
are completely believable.
The filming is occasionally shaky, which is one of my pet peeves. I like that
the cinematography is based on a muted color scheme that adds to the experience
of grief. The frequent shifts from darkened rooms to obscenely bright lights
are painful, but that also seems to be indicative of how people grieve - one
minute the world is fine and the next you're crying in a restaurant. I can't
decide if those light shifts are on purpose or if I'm reading too far into the
film's style. This isn't the feel-good movie of the year, but I do think it highlights
an important and difficult topic that is too often overlooked.
