Beautiful Boy

R

Released Jun 3, 2011

1 hr. 40 min.

Drama

List

71%

66 Reviews

Tomatometer

56%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Stuck in an unhappy but comfortable marriage, businessman Bill (Michael Sheen) and his wife, Kate (Maria Bello), are shocked when they learn that their son, Sammy (Kyle Gallner), has gone on a deadly shooting spree on his college campus before committing suicide. Struggling to avoid the media, the couple flees to the house of Kate's brother, Eric (Alan Tudyk). While the two try to remember what they might have done to drive Sammy to his desperate act, their mutual resentment builds.

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Critics Consensus

Saved by a pair of outstanding performances, Beautiful Boy is a testament to parental love and understating in the face of ultimate sorrow.

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Audience Member

What an emotional roller coaster these two actors take you on. A Very tough watch but beautifully and believably acted. May all who read this not have to live through this from any angle or perspective.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/02/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Spoilers: Thematically vast but like a rock skipping along the surface of the lake of these themes. Is it a critique of a gun-riddled society, where mass murders are the norm, not the exception? Like "Ordinary People," it is a tale of economically upscale people who lose a son and then watch the family disintegrate. But it's worse, as it is also about youth suicide, which Ordinary People had, but this sick college kid took 17 people with him on the campus. So Maria and Michael had the double whammy of dealing with a son dead of suicide, but also of a mass murdering son. Bello is a champ, not a false note here. Sheen is usually good, but seemed stilted somehow and trying to show us how a good actor does it, as the Brit also had some trouble with the American accent. The ravages of mass murder on not just the dead and wounded but on the families of the killer is a theme, as Its ripples just keep adding up. Were the parents too uninvolved due to the economic mandates of their jobs to have the beautiful suburban home with the beautiful lawn and subterranean sprinkler system? A social critique of home life being chilly as the big energy goes toward success in a capitalist world? It is no wonder the marriage cracks, as they blame one another for their son's mental meltdown and violent destruction -- you were too absent physically and emotionally, no, you were too demanding. The TV-hatemongers and hounding press want grist for their mills at the expense of getting the story wrong, as a client, a boss, friends show they're foes as well. The couple seem to want to move on as normal, but are so irreparably wounded, they're back in each other's arms, feeling no place else to be, as neither wants to do it alone. The break of Sheen at the end is so deep, we don't know if he is neurotic or now actually psychotic. The only hopeful note is that they are together at the end, she mouthing to herself we will get no burden too big to lift, he too distraught to want anything but for her to hold and sleep with him. Nothing gets too much attention, so we are left with questions. So it may be just a journalistic style account of how we survive or don't in our success-oriented capitalist society, our insane culture of hundreds of millions of guns used for repetitive mass murders, our need for more love, attention, affection in families (see 1997's "Ice Storm"). It really answers none of those, nor tries. How do you rebound from a dead, mass-murdering only child? Maybe you don't. Reminds of 2011's "We Need to Talk About Kevin" with mom Tilda Swinton and mass-murdering high-schooler Ezra Miller.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

kevin c

Heartbreaking story of a couple struggling to make sense of a horrific tragedy while their marriage is already on shaky ground. Michael Sheen and Maria Bello put on incredible and very convincing performances as the couple. Really well acted and riveting.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Serge L

A bit of a torture film that does not explain the event at all. It simply follow the couple during the aftermath. Maybe there was genetic predisposition. Well played though.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/24/21

Full Review

Audience Member

I agree with Roger Ebert that this one was well-executed but it gets trapped in its own premise. Any emotional relief or silver lining is almost unthinkable just due to the circumstances of the story itself, and so we walk away not taking much away other than some empathy for the almost unendurable plight of the main characters.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Great acting. It shows you what is really going on in the mind of addicts. This is not a feel-good movie. It's a reality.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

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Shawn Ku

Director

Michael Sheen

Bill Carroll

Maria Bello

Kate Carroll

Alan Tudyk

Eric

Moon Bloodgood

Trish

Kyle Gallner

Sam

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9%

36%

Answers to Nothing

75%

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Margaret

75%

78%

We Need to Talk About Kevin

64%

52%

Lymelife

90%

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Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

In Beautiful Boy, the themes are vast but the picture is small, and the ensuing emptiness is what the characters are meant to feel -- not us.

Rated: 2/4

Jun 17, 2011

Full Review

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

An excruciating drama about a couple caught in the aftermath of a pivotal moment involving their college-age son.

Rated: 1.5/4

Jun 17, 2011

Full Review

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

At a certain point lofty objectivity is just a refusal to engage, and no raw camera work can disguise it.

Rated: 2/4

Jun 16, 2011

Full Review

Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

Even with its flaws “Beautiful Boy” can be a powerful film that handles some tricky and weighty subject matter with care and compassion.

Rated: 3.5/5

Aug 19, 2022

Full Review

Amelia Harvey

Frame Rated

There are moments that are touching, but Beautiful Boy fails to dig deep into emotional depths. It skates the surface and refuses to evolve further than showing us how Nic's a smart kid on a bad path, David's a good dad trying his best...

Rated: 2/5

Jul 24, 2019

Full Review

Abbie Bernstein

Assignment X

Beautiful Boy is imperfect, but what works about it is very potent indeed.

Rated: B

Feb 14, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Stuck in an unhappy but comfortable marriage, businessman Bill (Michael Sheen) and his wife, Kate (Maria Bello), are shocked when they learn that their son, Sammy (Kyle Gallner), has gone on a deadly shooting spree on his college campus before committing suicide. Struggling to avoid the media, the couple flees to the house of Kate's brother, Eric (Alan Tudyk). While the two try to remember what they might have done to drive Sammy to his desperate act, their mutual resentment builds.

Director: Shawn Ku
Screenwriter: Shawn Ku, Michael Armbruster
Distributor: Anchor Bay
Production Co: Goldrush Entertainment
Rating: R (Language|A Scene of Sexuality)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 3, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 16, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $77.2K

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