Beautiful Boy [Blu-ray]

Director: Shawn Ku Shawn Ku

Overview

After he and his first wife (Amy Ryan) separate, journalist David Sheff (Steve Carell) struggles to help their son Nic (Timoth?e Chalamet), who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to crystal meth. As drugs turn his son into someone he doesn't recognize and his behavior negatively affects David's second wife (Maura Tierney) and their two kids, David must come to terms with the fact that to save his eldest son, he might have to let him go. Directed by Felix van Groeningen. Based on the memoirs of Nic and David Sheff.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/11/2011
UPC:	0013132301297
Original Release:	2010
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:41:00
Sales rank:	36,501

Special Features

Deleted scenes; Audio commentary with writer/director Shawn Ku, editor Chad Galster and cinematogrpher Michael Fimognari

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Maria Bello	Kate
Michael Sheen	Bill
Alan Tudyk	Eric
Moon Bloodgood	Trish
Austin Nichols	Cooper
Kyle Gallner	Sammy
Deidrie Henry	Bonnie
Bruce French	Harry
Logan South	Young Sammy
Nigel Gibbs	Police Detective
Cody Wai-Ho Lee	Dylan
Jessie Usher	Basketball Teen
Davidson Park	Other Basketballl Player
Caleb Pearson	Other Basketball Player
Joshua Shannon	Other Basketball Player
Darren O'Hare	Church Pastor
Myra Turley	Grieving Mother Patty
Bella King	Motel Clerk's Daughter
Meat Loaf Aday	Motel Clerk
Drake Kemper	Teenage Burglar
Mary Jane Gibson	Bill's Coworker
Kylie Anderson	Bill's Coworker
Tor Campbell	Bill's Coworker
Judith Digiacomo	Bill's Coworker
Joe Dioletto	Bill's Coworker
Stephen Murano	Bill's Coworker
Josephine Ullrich	Bill's Coworker
Philip Zurfluh	Bill's Coworker
David Lipper	Television Reporter,Radio Reporter Voice
Kelli Kirkland Powers	TV News Reporter
Brooke Lyons	TV Reporter Voice
Michael Call	TV Reporter Voice
Gregory H. Alpert	Web Reporter Voice/Baby Shower Carl,Baby Shower Carl
Kelli Kirkland	Actor
Trevor Morris	Composer

Technical Credits

Shawn Ku

Michael Armbruster

Shawn Ku	Director,Screenwriter
Michael Armbruster	Screenwriter
Lee Clay	Producer
Eric Gozlan	Producer
Richard Iott	Executive Producer
Richard Gabai	Executive Producer
Joe Galster	Sound/Sound Designer
Kari Montgomery	Script Supervisor
Mark Moran	Executive Producer
Tannis Vallely	Casting
Ania Kamieniecki-O'Hare	Casting

Editorial Reviews

We all grapple with both grief and guilt at some point in our lives, but few movies attempt to tackle the complex dynamic between those two emotional states as directly as Shawn Ku's Beautiful Boy. Married couple Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello) find they have less and less to say to each other after their only child, Sammy (Kyle Gallner), leaves for his freshman year at college. Kate attempts to organize a family vacation to get things on the right path, but one afternoon she and Bill learn that there's been a mass shooting at Sammy's school. As the news reports slowly release more and more information, Kate grows increasingly concerned that Sammy hasn't answered his phone all day. When police officers appear at the family's door, Kate learns that her worst fear -- as well as a fear so awful she'd never even considered it -- has come true: Sammy has died, and he was the shooter responsible for nearly two dozen deaths. Sheen and Bello are quite good at handling this emotionally difficult material. They vacillate between wailing in agony and trying to keep composure with an honesty that will be recognizable to anyone who has gone through the grieving process. On top of that, the marital spats that flair up between them have the flavor of a couple who had regrets well before they were ever forced to contend with unspeakable tragedy. Little actions, like the authority with which Kate cleans a dirty sink and the forceful forehand with which Bill repetitively smacks a tennis ball, offer telling glimpses into how these two people are close to exploding with emotions that they've kept hidden from each other for far too long. That steady buildup eventually gets released in the film's final act, and when these two finally let out their resentments, frustrations, and anger it's a blistering confrontation. A discussion like this either ends or strengthens a marriage, and the drama in Beautiful Boy is much more about the toll a crumbling marriage takes on a husband and wife than it is about the psychological makeup of a spree killer. Choosing the marriage as the focal point of the story turns out to be the film's best and worst aspect because as a portrait of two people headed for an inevitable, heartbreaking implosion where hurtful truths are finally said aloud, the movie has an unerring sensitivity. However, by using a mass killing as the impetus to get these two people to finally have the smoke-clearing fight they so desperately need, the movie bites off more than it can chew. The mammoth weight of Bill and Kate's misery leads the film down a road so dark that, even though the story resolves itself, we're left with little assurance of what will actually happen between these two people. The final scene occurs about a month after the shootings, and the movie's biggest flaw is that it doesn't extend the timeline of the narrative out a little farther -- everything is still so raw between the two of them that it's hard to shake the feeling we're being shortchanged on the story. Ambiguity is normally a welcome aspect to drama, but in this case we've been through so much torment that we need to see how Bill and Kate have picked up the pieces of their lives -- either alone or together -- a few years removed from this tragic event. There's much to respect about Beautiful Boy's admirably restrained yet still direct approach. It doesn't wallow in suffering, and it certainly doesn't make its lead characters out to be noble in their tragedy, but if the screenplay had taken a longer view of grief and guilt rather than minutely examining it, Beautiful Boy would have been a major statement. And while there's certainly no requirement that every serious drama must strive to be a grand summation about life, this particular story is rooted in enough real-life pain that Ku and company should have given it a try.