October 29, 2018 3 min to read

Boy Erased

Boy Erased is an expertly handled unpacking of conversion therapy, homophobia, and family relationships. Crowe and Kidman both deliver stunning performances worthy of a few shiny gold figurines if you ask me.

by Zach Saul

Deep In the bible belt of Tennessee lies a “Love in Action” conversion therapy center, and it sounds absolutely terrifying. Boy Erased is the story of Garrard Conley, (Named Jared Eamons in the film) a homosexual boy who is forced by his parents to attend a fundamentalist conversion therapy program. Jared (Lucas Hedges) is a reasonably well adjusted kid, who realizes after a sexual encounter with his girlfriend that something isn’t right in their relationship and perhaps he has other preferences. Once he starts college he’s befriended by a runner named Henry (Joe Alwyn) who takes advantage of him and rapes Jared when they’re alone in his dorm. Afterwards, Henry admits there were other victims too, and he needs help. To make sure he doesn’t talk, Henry calls the Eamon’s house pretending to be a school official and forces Jared’s hand to confess his homosexual tendencies.

Jared’s father Marshall (Russell Crowe) and his mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) are devastated when they hear the news and pressure Jared to attend a conversion therapy program. Jared encounters a variety of responses among the programs participants ranging from full complicity, to boys pretending the therapy works just to get released. When another boy named Cameron is physically beaten with bibles and humiliated in front of the whole group - something finally snaps for Jared, and at long last he starts advocating for himself.

What’s most admirable and interesting to me about Joel Edgerton’s movie to me is it’s sensitivity towards homophobia in the middle of a film loudly condemning it. The movie’s final scene where a successful Jared returns to his dad’s car dealership is the best example of this. Jared invites his father to spend christmas with him in New York to meet his boyfriend, and the sequence is in my opinion the best acted, and most touching scene of 2018. As Jared rightfully calls out his father for refusing to engage with him and dismissing his lifestyle a teary-eyed Crowe responds that he wants to change but isn’t sure if he can. Jared rightfully responds that he’s not going to change and to maintain a relationship his father “is going to have to”. What’s so touching about this scene to me is that we feel deeply for Jared — and believe his anger to be justified and warranted but we also feel for Marshall. The interesting and tricky part about unpacking homophobia is understanding the deeply ingrained set of moral rules each person has and the ways someone’s environment might rewire their brain to believe someone’s sexuality is wrong. In no way am I or the movie defending conversion therapy of homophobia, but it’s refreshing to see a movie intelligently attempt to understand its underpinnings and humanize it’s actors.

The Good: Much respect to Lucas Hedges as Jared, but Crowe and Kidman’s performances as his parents steal the show, and elevate Boy Erased to a tier of relevance it wouldn’t have otherwise achieved. The loudest, and most dramatic sequences are incredibly well written - and the big emotional moments all land. The climactic scene where Jared loudly challenges Mr. Skyes (Joel Edgerton) after he proclaims Jared hates his father really stands out to me - and is in keeping with the movie’s tonal response to all it’s emotional issues: “well, no. it’s more complicated than that”.

The Bad:In fairness, I haven’t read Garrard Conley’s memoir (on which the movie is based) — but I would have enjoyed knowing a little bit more about Jared/Garrard as a character. He largely acts as a lens in the movie through which to view the wrongdoings of the Love in Action program as objectively as possible.