Boy Erased (2018)
(On Cable TV, September 2020) You don’t have to be directly involved in LGBT+ issues to be infuriated by the conversion therapies as detailed in Boy Erased, a drama adapted from the memoirs of a young man sent to such a conversion camp by his parents. The very idea that sexual orientation can be therapied out feels absurd to most viewers, and writer-director-producer-star Joel Edgerton clearly plays to such audiences in showcasing the regressive nature of those implementing or supporting those conversion programs. High-profile stars such as Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Xavier Dolan and a heavyset Russell Crowe lend further prestige to the production in its militant goals. It would be easy to wrap up the review by only talking about its topic matter, but there are two other things than nag me about Boy Erased. The first is a rape sequence in the first third of the film that seems incredibly pivotal and problematic and then seems shunted off, perhaps because it would distract from the film’s clean “no therapy” message. I’m not knowledgeable enough to correctly assess what happened there, but it still seems to stick out of the film’s narrative without proper acknowledgement or resolution. The second thing is perhaps more fundamental—Boy Erased is a message movie, and agreeing with the message doesn’t quite negate that the film itself is a bit underplayed—facile, predictable and conventional even in the ways it pushes its audience’s indignation buttons. (A lot of the most extreme material seems to be an invention of the film when compared to the book, and to bring together two related things, there’s a whole discussion about whether to keep the rape sequence without properly examining its fallout, while inventing scenes of abuse that never existed.) A better movie exists somewhere, just as militant in its good intentions but more successful in its execution—perhaps with a better script, perhaps with other actors.