Movie Reaction: Beautiful Boy

Formula: Half Nelson + a parent

I don't get drugs and addiction. The hardest thing I've ever done is pot and I've been underwhelmed by that. I didn't care for it. Anything stronger has never appealed to me. Addiction is similar mystifying. I don't doubt that it exists. It's just a foreign concept to me. I understand obsession, so I try to think of that, kind of like how I try to think of being drunk as a hard drug comparison. But it's fundamentally different.

That's the problem at the center of Beautiful Boy. It's the story of a father and son, David and Nic Sheff, played by Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet respectively. It's based on David and Nic's memoirs, essentially covering the two sides of addiction. Despite being told from both men's perspective, the movie only convincingly tells one side of the story.

It nails David's side of the story. The movie weaves through different flashbacks pretty masterfully as David reflects on his memories with his son, looking for where he went wrong, while telling the linear story of Nic's several stints in rehab. Carell is great at playing the frustration of not being able to understand his son's addiction. No matter what he reads or who he asks, he never knows what he can do to help. I've seen enough shows and movies about characters with addiction to recognize the beats of the story already. They are handled honestly here and don't feel stale because of that.

Nic's side of the story is uneven. The biggest problem I found is that the movie starts after he's addicted. Without the how and the why, it's hard to connect with his problem. I don't understand his triggers or appreciate how he got into this mess. Why did he get addicted when others managed to use recreationally? The defense, I imagine, is that there are no easy answers to these questions. Too often, the movie uses "he's an addict" as a cover-all answer, and that's not good enough, given the effort that's put in on David's side. Nic isn't fleshed out enough. He's an addict, and that's his personality.

I appreciated this movie. Carell and Chalamet are really good, except for the fact that Steve Carell is incapable of yelling without it sounding funny. It's not a failure in his performance. I've just heard the yell too many times used for laughs in the past. I was very impressed with how it edits together all the flashbacks without having to go out of its way to let the audience know when they occur. Amy Ryan and Maura Tierney have nice supporting performances as Nic's mother and step-mother. Had the movie tried to understand Nic a little earlier, I would've liked it a lot more. 

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend