Film Review – Boy Erased
Here’s a fun little anecdote to get this started: in its original book form, Boy Erased is the only text I have ever read two times in a row. As soon as I finished it for the first time I went right back to the start to read it all over again, deeply shaken yet transfixed by the story.
The movie, too, leaves one shaken, and I wish I could say I did the same with the movie as with the book – that when I watched it last week it moved me, that I couldn’t help but watch it twice over because it was just that gripping. The truth is, though, I could barely get through it once. It’s not that Boy Erased is a bad film, not by any stretch. It’s extraordinary, and it’s effective. But the problem is, it hurts. Watching Boy Erased is a uniquely uncomfortable experience, comparable only to (in my experience) The Basketball Diaries in terms of how difficult it is to watch.
Of course, I shouldn’t have been watching it when I first did. I was fourteen, and obsessed with the pop singer Troye Sivan (who features in a supporting role in the film). I was also in the middle of lockdown, and experiencing unprecedented levels of internet access that allowed me hours of uninterrupted film-watching while I pretended to do my schoolwork. I’d considered myself mostly unaffected by the book, and knew little about the film to make me think twice before watching it. All I knew was it would allow me to see Troye Sivan, and really, even now there’s still a lot I’d do for the very same.
So naturally, I watched Boy Erased – even though, as I said, the film’s heavy themes meant this was anything but a good idea at fourteen (and even five years later, too, as I found when I watched it last week). The film follows Jared Eamons, the son of a pastor in America’s Bible Belt south, who is sent to conversion therapy in an attempt by his parents to make him heterosexual. After a student at his college informs Jared’s parents of their son’s homosexuality, they seek to ‘return’ him to God, and ‘cure’ him of his sins. While attending conversion therapy, Jared and those around him are subjected to psychological and emotional abuse and traumatised day after day, taught to despise themselves simply for who they are.
Obviously, it’s devastating. I described the film already as uncomfortable, and this is true, but more than that, it’s flat-out painful to watch. The awful suffering the film’s characters experience is even worse when one remembers that this is, essentially, a true story. The conversion therapy program named in the film, Love In Action, was real, and such institutions remain active threats to the wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ people across the world today.
As such, Boy Erased is not just a damning but also crucial film. The difficult topic is handled carefully and with conviction, each actor compelling and authentic in their role. Alongside Troye Sivan (whose attempt at an American accent is almost definitely my favourite part of the film), Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman star as Jared’s parents, torn between their faith and their love for their son. Both Crowe’s and Kidman’s performances are understated but powerful. The warmth Kidman in particular brings to her role creates an emotional touchstone that gives the film a deeper humanity and resonance with viewers. As the film’s ability to affect viewers intimately in this way may have been otherwise limited by the overwhelming horror of it, her effect is profound. Lucas Hedges, one of only a few non-Australian actors in the main cast, is similarly effective in the role of Jared. His quiet, world-weary character seems at all times to be in a state of painful resignation. He is made vulnerable before us, his suffering palpable and his experiences all the more harrowing.
Obviously, Boy Erased isn’t a light or an easy watch. But it is an excellent film, and one that viewers are almost sure to be affected by. People are left exhausted by the film’s heavy emotional toll, but keenly aware of the necessity for change; it’s not a film that’s easy to forget. And while I don’t imagine it’ll ever be something I can watch twice in a row like I once read the book, there’s no doubt it’s a film I’ll watch again – because sometimes what you really need is just to feel, and there’s nothing Boy Erased does better than making people feel.
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