Movie review: 'Boy Erased' a soulful look at conflicted teen, family

“Boy Erased” - ★ ★ ★

“Boy Erased” is based on the true story of a young man whose Baptist family put him in a conversion therapy center to “cure” his homosexuality when he was 19-years-old. Garrard Conley wrote about his experiences in a memoir, which writer-director-actor Joel Edgerton has adapted for the screen in a manner that is admirably and almost radically empathetic to all its characters — even the villains.

In the film, the protagonist is called Jared Eamons and is played with deep soulfulness by the talented actor Lucas Hedges. who has yet to meet a role he can't conquer. His parents are Marshall (Russell Crowe), a respected pastor and car salesman in Arkansas, and Nancy (Nicole Kidman), a dutiful wife and caring mother with a penchant for tastefully bedazzled clothing.

They're the kind of parents who, when presented with the information that their only son might be gay, aren't just opposed to the idea, but believe deep down that it's a sin, a choice, and an affliction that can be cured. But they're also the kind of parents who believe that this mentality comes from love, not intolerance.

And so, after some tears and consulting with men of the church who've “dealt” with things like this before, Marshall ships Jared off to conversion therapy to be fixed in a program run by Victor Sykes (played by Edgerton himself).

The story is told in real time peppered with various flashbacks as Jared wrestles with what he's been through, what he's felt and what he wants to do. We don't get much of Jared's internal monologue, but there is a sense of real conflict. He's a good kid who is used to pleasing his parents, and now, through no fault of his own, he has disappointed them.

The center devolves into a place of horrors as the weeks go on, but there is a glint of hope as Nancy, who is stewarding her son to and from the sessions while they stay in a local hotel, starts to read up on their philosophies and techniques. It's an arc that I didn't see coming and one that justifies why someone as brilliant as Kidman was necessary. Even Crowe, who is mostly absent, gets his own few minutes of affecting emotion by the end.

You do wish you got to know everyone a little better, especially Jared's therapy-mates, but the film keeps the viewer at a bit of a distance.

For Edgerton as a writer and director, “Boy Erased” is very strong, albeit less flashy, follow-up to his first film “The Gift,” a taut thriller that couldn't be more different from this one. “Boy Erased” is undoubtedly more important, however, and even though it might be difficult to watch at times, it's done with such love and sensitivity that it's hard to imagine a human being not connecting in some way, and perhaps even learning something.

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Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton

Directed by: Joel Edgerton

Other: A Focus Features release. Rated R for sexual situations, language and drug use. 114 minutes