Beautiful Boy

Bill and Kate are on the edge of separating. They live in the same house and do not talk; the divorce has been discussed and no date is set. Their son at university calls one night and the conversation is cut short. The next morning there is a campus shooting on the news. The boy who did it killed himself at the end, and that boy is their son. The house is besieged, reporters are at the door, and the couple move into a motel. Everything after that is one question: which of us did not see it. Shawn Ku directs and co-wrote the script. Maria Bello plays Kate and Michael Sheen plays Bill. Alan Tudyk and Moon Bloodgood are also in the cast. It is an American production. The film does not show the shooting; the narrative is entirely afterwards and rests on two people. The matter it treats is guilt; both parents hold themselves and each other responsible and the film clears nobody. The narrative gives very little room to the victims, and that choice is arguable. Bello and Sheen are allowed long scenes; the arguments are given without cutting away. The film looks for no explanation; why the boy did it is never said. The narrative separates the couple's grief from society's; nobody offers them condolences. The camera is handheld and close; it does not leave the two faces. The ending offers no reconciliation and promises no progress. Its limit is endurance; the narrative is suffocating, there is no hope, and the viewer is given no room to breathe. Who it is for: viewers who like heavy family drama and films built on performance. Who it is not for: it is suffocating, hopeless, and the ending bitter.