Grieving is never easy. But what happens when your heartache is treated as less important or even unjustified? Parents Bill and Kate have to deal with such a scenario in the film Beautiful Boy.
In the film, their son, Sammy, a freshman in college, opens fire in his campus classrooms soon after taking his own life. Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello) must cope with the loss of their son while coming to grips with the destruction he inflicted on their entire community.
It’s a story rarely thought of, but one which holds great value and significance. This film captures the lives of two people, on the verge of separating even before the shooting, whose emotions reach the breaking point numerous times. With camera angles often shot from behind walls, the viewer is truly given a glimpse into the lives of these victims who hurt in an equally painful way, but are rarely shown compassion.
Their community shuns them, forcing them to leave their home, family, friends and jobs. Actors Sheen and Bello do a phenomenal job exposing the raw reactions of these two parents, never once holding back.
Despite the intricate emotions explored in the film, it does mainly exclude any input from the other families who lost children, making Bill and Kate seem more self-centered than is intended. They go through the wrenching “what could I have done?” and the “why didn’t I notice anything?” But with the focus on the couple and their crumbling marriage, the viewer is left with little incite into Sammy himself or why he would choose this path. Leaving that aspect dark meant questioning the parents’ validity in knowing their own son.
Contrary to the film’s title, there is no true indication of a “beautiful boy” only the misery he left behind.
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