Boy Erased

I love this time of year because a lot of Oscar contenders are released and I had the chance to see one of them, Boy Erased, yesterday.  Lucas Hedges is Jared Eamons, the son of Marshall (Russell Crowe), an affluent Baptist minister and owner of a car dealership, and his wife Nancy (Nicole Kidman).  He breaks up with his girlfriend and questions his sexuality when he begins college.  After a traumatic incident at school with another boy he is outed to his parents who, seeking the counsel of other church members, decide to send him to a gay conversion therapy program run by Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton).  In the beginning he is a willing participant who wants to change.  He is told by one attendee named Jon (Xavier Dolan) to devote himself wholeheartedly to the program and by another named Gary (Troye Sivan) that he should play the part so that he can go home again.  He begins to question Sykes' practices when an attendee named Cameron (Britton Sear) is humiliated in front of the group and, during an emotional exercise, he retrieves his phone and contacts his Mom.  She is horrified by what has been happening in the program and decides to take him home despite her husband's objections.  What I really liked about this movie, which sets it apart from The Miseducation of Cameron Post, is that neither the parents nor the program director are vilified but the message about the harm done by conversion therapy is very clear.  They are misguided but they mean well.  Both Kidman and Crowe give highly sympathetic performances because you definitely understand why they do what they do even if you are horrified by it and I loved the fact that they ultimately accept their son (the final scene between Hedges and Crowe is so affecting).  I also really enjoyed a cameo by Cherry Jones who plays a doctor who tells Jared that he is completely normal.  Hedges, as always, gives a brilliant performance that is incredibly nuanced as a young man forced to reconcile his sexual identity with his Evangelical Christian upbringing.  You see his confusion, his desire to please his parents, and his dawning realization that he is not evil.  It is very restrained but it is extremely powerful with an important message that everyone needs to see.  I highly recommend it!