Nobody can know just what was in the mind of a student who turns a gun on his fellows and teachers and then himself. But what about the parents? What is like to lose a child — and then discover that child committed a massacre? “Beautiful Boy” imagines an answer to that heartbreaking question. Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello) are a couple like many others. They’re on the verge of ending their marriage, speaking to each other only about trivialities like the weather. They’ve waited to break up until their son, Sam (Kyle Gallner), went to college. The sensitive freshman isn’t handling the new environment very well. But he’s unable to communicate that to his parents — his conversations with them are as banal as their talks with each other.
So Bill and Kate are shocked — horrified, grieved, and other emotions beyond words — when they find out that he’s responsible for the deaths of more than a dozen. Kate at first refuses to believe her beautiful, shy boy could have done such a thing. It won’t be the only moment she and her husband are given almost too much pain to bear.
| ‘Beautiful Boy’ |
| 4 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Michael Sheen, Maria Bello |
| Director: Shawn Ku |
| Rated: R for some language and a scene of sexuality |
| Running time: 100 minutes |
“Beautiful Boy” is raw, real and a difficult film to watch. But it rewards the viewer’s persistence. You can guess at some of what the parents must be feeling — hurt, anger, guilt — but Sheen and Bello make us understand some of it beyond the level of words. Shawn Ku, in just his first feature film, knows that details, to paraphrase Muriel Spark, create the atmosphere. Bill and Kate’s relationship isn’t quite over yet. The way, when she’s reluctant to go anywhere, that she responds when he says “c’mon,” is just one example.
This film is, of course, dark, but its not without its humor, like life itself. Kate’s sister-in-law informs her husband of their young son, “He’s been telling everyone his cousin is a TV star.” Even Bill and Kate, though sometimes barely able to stand one other, manage, now and then, to make one another smile. Life must go on, after all. Even if there’s no way we’ll ever understand it.
