Year: 2018
Director: Joel Edgarton
Country: US
Language: English
I have often dismissed evangelical films like Heaven is for Real and The War Room as meandering melodrama that can only appeal to very weak minded people. Similar can be said for Hollywood's anti-evangelical films. Boy Erased (2018) ia a film about an issue we all know about (gay conversion therapy) and is important to know, but tells us in a weak way that doesn't quite hit its audience in the gut wrenching way it should.
Jared, the son (Lucas Hedges) of a Baptist preacher (Russel Crowe) is forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program after being forcibly outed to his parents.
Joel Edgerton's direction treats the material seriously, but with an astonishing lack of subtlety regarding its symbolism. In one scene the main character walks past an advertisement on a bus stop, as he turns back the hot female model turns into a hot male model. It's like the Universe is mocking his sexuality! In another he is walking in slow motion to his school, against the flow of traffic. It's like he's "different" from everybody else. Woah.
The dramatic points of the film never quite hit a high note. The most harrowing scene ends with Jared's mother picking him up after he calls her. The expose against the church doesn't tell us anything new and doesn't go far enough in showing the abhorrent nature of gay conversion therapy. Honestly if one were to watch Boy Erased they might think "well gay conversion is not as bad as we hear". It is as bad and its so much worse than what we see in this film.
Boy Erased is not a good film despite having incredible performances by Lucas Hedges and Russel Crowe. Russel's body morph alone (the Gladiator guy got that fat for this role!?) deserves to earn him an oscar nomination. Ultimately this film was very dissapointing.
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