Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Beautiful Boy Blu-ray Movie Review

Wonderful.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 13, 2011

Things would be different from now on.

"Ripped from today's headlines" and "art imitating life" both seem so trite, but there's really no better way to describe Beautiful Boy, a heart wrenching and almost impossible-to-watch picture about parents dealing with the aftermath of a great tragedy and the results it has on others, their reputation, the way they live, and their very essences. "Ripped from the headlines" of Virginia Tech, Columbine, Luby's, Arizona, or wherever such things may have in this real life taken place, Beautiful Boy goes beyond the paragraph, the news clip, the water fountain gossip and places its viewers in the midst of an impossibly difficult situation, allowing them to experience a part of a tragedy that's more than and goes far beyond a dispassionate news story emanating from some far off distant place that conveys the kind of anger, sadness, and regret that bubbles over with chants of "never again!," only to fade into a distant memory hours, days, weeks later. Fortunately, Beautiful Boy isn't overtly about an agenda. It's an honest, tearful look at the aftermath of a national tragedy from a perspective that's often not considered and, probably for the best, left unexplored. Beautiful Boy is a movie that picks up where the headlines stop, telling the story of two people who have lost it all and must choose to move on or become their own son's final two victims.

Searching for answers.

Parents Kate (Maria Bello) and Bill (Michael Sheen) are normal people leading normal lives. Their marriage isn't the strongest, but they're getting by. They have a son, Sammy (Kyle Gallner), in college, and it seems the most critical problem facing the family is where to book the next vacation. Little do Kate and Bill know that something is terribly wrong, that something could be so terribly wrong, and that something terrible is about to shake the very foundation of their lives. After a night apart and following a troubling call from their son, Kate and Bill awaken to news of a tragedy: there's been a shooting at Sammy's college that's left more than twenty people dead. Panic leads to denial, anger, and heartache when the authorities arrive with bad news: not only is Sammy dead, but he's dead by his own hand, his suicide coming after he murdered his classmates. Bill and Kate shut themselves in and close themselves off from the world. They have no answers, nothing to say, nowhere to go save for Kate's brother's (Alan Tudyk) house, to which they retreat in the middle of the night. All that's left for Kate and Bill are questions to which they may never find answers and lives to which they may never be able to return.

A Beautiful Boy is a mental and emotional challenge. It's a draining, depressing, and seemingly hopeless picture, but there are lights at the end of the tunnel, whether they're plainly made visible in the movie or not. Can a tragedy mend a degrading marriage? Can a tragedy expose and fix the flaws in others? Can a tragedy prevent future tragedies? The fictional story of Kate and Bill doesn't have all the answers -- nor do the various subtexts that run through the film -- but what's important is that the film raises the questions, explores the pains, and attempts reconcile the two worlds that exist in the film, that which was before the tragedy and that which is after. This is superficially the story of a couple struggling to find answers and deal with the external pressures, angers, doubts, fears, and questions that are a result of their son's actions, but it's also the story of their search for inner truths, for the ability to heal together rather than apart, for a way to move on, to preserve what they had and what they have while preparing for whatever life may give to them at some future date, a future for which they will only be stronger should they use the tragedy to better themselves. They must decide if their son's actions are something from which they can escape, and indeed, if they even should attempt to escape them. If they discard the past, will they ever truly find peace? Will they grow from all they've experienced and learned, cherish the good memories and accept the bad? Or will they succumb to the pressures of life and disappear into a hellish existence of self-doubt, uncertainty, and regret? There's no real right or wrong answer; individual and marital strengths and faiths will determine each path, but if nothing else Beautiful Boy opens the floor to discussion and, for a brief but difficult time, places the viewer in the shoes of a couple forced to come to terms with what's happened and, just as important, discover who they are and what they will become.

That returns the question full circle back to the one word that inevitably becomes the single focus of any man-made, possibly preventable tragedy such as this: "why?" How does something like this happen? In a way, that's the focus of Beautiful Boy, but in the aftermath, the "blame game" slowly rises to the surface and quickly explodes into all of those thoughts, emotions, and outcomes as alluded to above: will the net result be loathing and self-doubt, or can the tragedy be used for, ultimately, a greater good? The answers to those questions may or may not be traced to any source that could in any way conceivably become an answer, whether anecdotally, positively, or merely serving as a convenient scapegoat, something on which to lay the blame for the purposes of faster healing. But if it's the latter, where's the true healing? Hiding a gaping wound with a bandaid or laying plastic over a hole in the roof doesn't solve the problem, it merely alleviates the problem temporarily. Then again, maybe there is no one or nothing to blame. By nature, man is fickle at best, unpredictable at worst. Life's actions can't always be traced back to a single defining event, and blame isn't something that can ever truly be laid on one single thing. If a meteor crashes into a new car, are the heavens to "blame?" Or is it the driver at fault for parking it in just the right -- or wrong -- spot? Is it the manufacturer's fault for making the car? Or is it those long ago decisions, made even by people to whom the victim bears no connections but that ultimately led to one event in the here and now, cumulatively at fault? Perhaps more relevant, is there such a thing as fate, something that's predestined to happen no matter the circumstances, whether for a greater good or as part of some cosmic game that must be played out in which man is merely a pawn at the whim of some greater force? Beautiful Boy doesn't have all the philosophical answers, but it's unafraid to subtly an contextually raise the questions. It bears no fruit fit for solving the greater questions that arise in both the physical and spiritual realms, but it does open a door and allow its viewers to witness firsthand one couple's efforts to find whatever their truth may be that may or may not set them free of their grief, their pain, their past, their future.

No matter the strength of the story and the emotions, thoughts, and reactions it may engender, it would be a far lesser experience without both the expert direction and seamless performances that round the movie into a polished, believable, and gripping finished product. Director Shawn Ku nails it in his first feature. He understands both the technical elements of the filmmaking process as well as his role in furthering the story and heightening the emotion from a visual perspective. His camera lingers, often with some part of the frame blocked out, on his characters as they grieve, cope, fight, doubt, and struggle with their inner emotions and the outward consequences of their son's sins and their inner and outer reactions. Ku's drab color palette and relatively heavy grain structure further's the film's sense of despair and emotional chaos. He always places the camera so as to provide the audience with something of a first-hand perspective, effectively placing them in the room with the characters and, visually, anyway, reinforcing and enhancing the rawness of the story and the effectiveness of the performances. Indeed, both Michael Sheen and Maria Bello are utterly fantastic in Beautiful Boy; they seamlessly portray a frazzled married couple whose interpersonal bond and their own fragile internal essences only come under greater fire when presented with the challenge of dealing with what seems at first to be a problem for which there is no way to deal. Both effectively capture every obvious overtone and subtle nuance alike in their performances; they immediately become grieving parents who so desperately look for a means of either escaping, coping, or understanding what's happened to them and to the greater world around them. The performances are truly seamless and incredibly well detailed, putting the finishing touches on a powerhouse movie that might be too difficult for some but that presents an incredibly strong foundation on which viewers are free to project anything and everything that comes to mind in what may be the ultimate "what if" scenario.

Beautiful Boy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beautiful Boy's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer looks about as good as the material allows. As noted above, colors tend to favor a rather drab, lifeless scheme. Still, balance is fine even in the absence of a more vibrant palette. Low-light color gradations on faces, for instance, do struggle on occasion, yielding pasty results that are prone to banding. On the other hand, fine detail is quite good all around. Clothing textures are particularly strong, but the picture's very visual nature doesn't yield the sort of imagery that's of the high definition eye candy variety. Nevertheless, it's quite the good look for a movie of this nature, and the established, heavy grain field both adds a cinematic flair to the proceedings while giving the film a rougher sort of appearance that accentuates the emotional content. Black levels are fair, and the print exhibits no perceptible damage. This is a quality release from Anchor Bay.

Beautiful Boy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beautiful Boy arrives on Blu-ray with a run-of-the-mill Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. "Run of the mill" isn't meant as a knock on the track; to the contrary, this is a solid listen built from the unspectacular material that makes up a talk-heavy drama. The focal point, dialogue, plays with authority and clarity through the center channel, never hindered by surrounding elements. A few moments of heavier, louder music are handled well, delivering an airy and spacious feel that enjoys a slight bit of surround support. Minor ambience is subtly effective, whether in a restaurant scene in chapter six or in various shots inside Bill's office. There's just not much to this one; it's technically proficient but offers nothing that would make it stand out in the crowd. All told, a job well done by Anchor Bay.

Beautiful Boy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Beautiful Boy's supplemental section consists of a wonderful audio commentary, deleted scenes, and the film's trailer.

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Shawn Ku, Editor Chad Galster, and Cinematographer Michael Fimognari offer an intriguing commentary that's well balanced between technical and thematic insights. Ku dominates, speaking on life and loss, modern society, the film's basis in reality, character development and interactions, the story's essence, and much, much more. This is a very insightful, well-spoken, and engrossing commentary. Here's hoping for more from Ku both behind the camera and behind the commentary microphone in the future.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 2:06).
• Beautiful Boy Trailer (1080p, 1:59).

Beautiful Boy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Beautiful Boy is an incredibly powerful motion picture that's also superbly crafted from the top down. It's a pleasure to watch from a technical perspective but at the same time it's a difficult movie on an emotional level, one of the more painstakingly real movies to come along in the last few years. Ultimately, however, Beautiful Boy delivers a rewarding experience for the many challenges it creates and the questions it leaves best answered by each viewer. It's a movie that requires just the right state of mind and asks its audiences to contemplate its various elements long after it ends. This is a movie that won't soon be forgotten. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Beautiful Boy features strong video, good audio, and three extras. Recommended.