A boy is literally Bible bashed in BOY ERASED, a coming of age and coming out story of the son of a Baptist pastor in Arkansas who is outed to his parents at age 19. Fearing a loss of family, friends, and church, the boy, Jared is pressured into attending a conversion therapy program.
While there, Jared comes into conflict with the self loathing Christian fundamentalist belief of the therapy and its inappropriate prosecution.
BOY ERASED fosters the question of how this kind of bigotry can be perpetuated by people who, at their core, love one another, that these kinds of social injustices aren’t always carried out by monsters, but by people close to us, whose decency descends into God fearing bullying.
God fearing is a mask to the odd fearing mentality of these folk who think anything at odds with hetero-normative behaviour is demonic, prepared to thrash the living daylights out of their children.
BOY ERASED is a story of injustice, a catalogue of catastrophe, of a boys loss of freedom and basic human rights by people directed by dubious Biblical encyclical. The offenders perpetrating civil liberty violations against Jared believed they were doing the right thing.
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intention.
Lucas Hedges as Jared continues to cement his reputation of one of the screen’s superlumes after Three Billboards and Ladybird earlier this year. It is a splendid performance of confusion, vulnerability and latent strength with wide emotional intelligence.
Jared’s mother Nancy is played by Nicole Kidman. It too is an exquisite performance. As the wife to a Baptist minister and mother to a child she loves very much, Nancy finds herself stuck in the middle of the very difficult decision to do what she thinks is right for her son. Within the film, Nancy silently allows the men to decide what to do with Jared, even though she knows in her heart that it isn’t right. When she sees the turmoil, confusion and depression that this therapy is imparting on Jared, she knows she has to take a stand. Through this conversion therapy process, Nancy grows from the role of chaperone to Jared’s accomplice in escaping. Kidman beautifully portrays the agony that Nancy is going through with a simple maternal love, uncomplicated nature and real dignity.
Playing Marshall, Jared’s doggedly dogmatic dad, Russell Crowe brings a steady rock solid authenticity that is acutely attuned to his character’s steadfast faith and the conflicting faith in his own fatherhood, a feeling of failure phalanxed on both fronts. Crowe conveys an incredible sturdiness and yet a real sensitivity. As a Baptist preacher who cannot see past what he considers a literal interpretation of the Bible, Marshall struggles with the “choice“ he thinks his son is making to be homosexual.
I was reminded of an early Russel Crowe movie, The Sum of Us, where he played a young gay guy to Jack Thompson’s understanding dad.
Joel Edgerton stars as Victor Sykes in BOY ERASED, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Focus Features
Joel Edgerton, who wrote and directed BOY ERASED, also plays the head of the conversion therapy facility that Jared attends. He achieves a hat trick of rare distinction as helmer, scribe and actor, an achievement that has not gone unnoticed by the industry.
Leading individual nominations in this year’s AACTA Awards are Joel Edgerton (BOY ERASED) and Simon Baker (BREATH), who compete in four categories: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. Not only does this mark first-time production and direction nominations for the AFI and AACTA Award-winning auteurs, it also marks the first time in AFI | AACTA history that an individual has been nominated in both direction and acting categories in the same year.
Also receiving nominations for BOY ERASED are Oscar® and multi-AFI and AACTA Award winners Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, who is vying for her second consecutive Best Supporting Actress win.
BOY ERASED is possibly the best Australian film shot off shore, in a long while.
