26. Beautiful Boy; movie review

BEAUTIFUL BOY
Cert 15
120 mins
BBFC advice: Contains drug misuse, frequent drug references, strong language, sex

Yes, Timothée Chalamet gives an award-deserving performance as a drug addict and Steve Carell tugs at the heart as his helpless dad but....
Can we say that we enjoyed Felix Van Groeningen's Beautiful Boy?
I suppose the follow-up question is - were were meant to?
Of course, as a parent, I felt deeply for David Sheff (Carell) whose book outlining his journey through his son's addiction - provides the basis for the film.
Inevitably, fear is also engendered for Nic (Chalamet) whose writing also provides material for Beautiful Boy.
But the problem is that drug addiction is such a familiar theme both in movies and real life that the movie doesn't reveal very much that we didn't already know.
Inevitably, we see a family in happier times (although there is a difficult parental split) and then the progression of the effect of the hardest of drugs.
As with most addicts, denial is a key factor as are various attempts at rehabilitation.
The consequence is that Nic's nearest and dearest are constantly on edge while living in hope that a spark will ignite a desire to go down a different path.
In common with many, Mrs W and I have experienced seeing a victim at close hand and seen the devastating consequences of addiction so we can attest to Baeutiful Boy's accuracy.
But while the writing of their respective books may have been cathartic for father and son, I didn;t feel they were particularly enlightening.
We they trying to say that drugs are bad? We know. That a beautiful child can be changed into a demon? We know.
Or that sooner or later parents have to be cruel to be kind - not necessarily to the addict but to those whose lives are being wrecked.
That is the biggest lesson but is also already known by those with experience.
Therefore, in a nutshell, Beautiful Boy is superbly acted and is steeped in reality but is more of an ordeal than enjoyment and doesn't reveal anything new about a cruel subject.

Reasons to watch: A very realistic portrayal of addiction and its fall-out.
Reasons to avoid: Doesn't show us anything new in a cruel subject

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? The already slim Timothée Chalamet lost 20lbs to make the hospitalisation scenes appear more realistic.

The final word Nic Sheff: "We wanted to show a process that so many people experience when they first try to get sober — the cycle of relapse caused by the pain of being without the drugs and having to face your feelings. I felt that process of relapsing had never been depicted in films. We wanted a movie that shows how hard it is to get out of that cycle." The Fix

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