Beautiful Boy tells the (based on a true) story of father and son David (Steve Carell) and Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet) during Nic’s years-long struggle with drug addiction. The true life inspiration was both a blessing and a curse in this case. It’s not uncommon for these kinds of movies to be lacking in authenticity. That wasn’t a worry here.
Both David and Nic wrote memoirs chronicling their own experiences. So the movie had insight from both sides to pull story from. That access allowed for a real, raw story to come alive on screen. Unfortunately the film-makers went too far in that direction and ended up with a problem you don’t see too often: the movie felt too real.
I think the best way I can describe it is like this. Whenever you read a book, you picture the events playing out in your head. That’s what Beautiful Boy felt like to me. You have the words on the paper to guide your thoughts as to how the story plays out. And for good chunks of the movie that’s what you get. You get the surface, and not much else.
Where the movie really comes together, though, is any time Carell and Chalamet are on screen together. Every scene they share is fantastic. Carell continues his post-The Office career by nailing yet another dramatic role. And Chalamet proves again he’s one of the best young actors working today. Carell is able to perfectly capture the pain and anguish a parent must feel seeing one of their children suffer like this. And Chalamet does his part, letting the tragedy of an addiction-fueled life flow through him. It’s nothing short of heartbreaking to watch.
Beautiful Boy plays on the fact that most people will be able to relate to this movie on some sort of personal level. Sadly, too many have a personal connection to an addiction story. Whether it’s yourself or a loved one or a co-worker or anybody else, chances are someone in your life has struggled with addiction. And at certain times, it’s able to draw on that raw emotion and hook you in. If it had been able to find a way to keep that going for the entire movie, we could be talking about a great film. Unfortunately the movie can’t stop getting in its own way.
The narrative structure is a complete mess. We see many flashback scenes of David and Nic and various younger ages. But ultimately they didn’t move the story, they didn’t provide any valuable information that the audience couldn’t have figured out on their own. A father loves his son? Don’t need multiple flashbacks to get that point across. A father and son are close, to the point of being friends? Again, plenty of ways to show that in the present-day (or close to it) without showing us Nic at varying pre-teen ages. These flashbacks always seemed to come at the worst times. We would get a great, intense scene that would then be undercut by a flashback, killing any momentum the movie had picked up.
Having so much time devoted to these filler scenes left too little time to dive into what could have been the most compelling part of the movie: Nic’s journey. If all, or even most, of the flashbacks had been cut, we could have gone deeper there. Yes, it would have made the movie darker and harder to watch than it already was, but it would have been a better story, making a better movie.
As it is, Beautiful Boy is too singularly focused. The vast majority focuses on David and Nic. And while that makes sense to a degree, addiction has far-reaching consequences. Nic had a mother, a step-mother, and two younger siblings. There were presumably friends in Nic’s life that would have been affected by this. And while we do get into the family dynamic a bit, it was far from enough. Perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of all comes from a line from Nic’s younger brother, Jasper, who is maybe around 8 years old if I had to guess. Nic has relapsed yet again. While walking into Jasper’s swim meet, he asks “Is Nic on drugs again?” Think about that. Eight years old and having those kinds of worries cross his mind. This was just one moment but there could have been so much more.
That fact is compounded when you consider who played Nic’s mom, Vicki, and step-mom, Karen. Amy Ryan and Maura Tierney played Vicki and Karen, respectively. Amy Ryan and Maura Tierney! And they were barely used! Vicki was mostly relegated to crying or being mad at David. Vicki barely even spoke. Yes, they each had a few good smaller moments. But there’s world-class talent there. Use it.
It’s these kinds of creative (mis)decisions that prevent the movie from realizing its full potential. And given the serious and all-too-relevant subject matter, it’s truly a shame.
Oscar hopes: Carell and Chalamet are the only real hopes for a nomination here. But I suppose maybe there’s a chance at Adapted Screenplay?
Lead Actor: Steve Carell Supporting Actor: Timothée Chalamet
