************************This review contains a mild spoiler****************************
“When I discovered drugs my world went from black and white to technicolor. I can never give that up.”
Beautiful Boy is based on the real-life memoirs of father and son David and Nic Sheff, portrayed in the film by Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. Beautiful Boy is a portrait of a family in crisis, struggling to cope with the addiction troubles of its eldest son Nic and save him from himself without succumbing to the darkness alongside him.
A recurring motif in Beautiful Boy is that of waves in the ocean. David and Nic mention surfing in the ocean numerous times and we’re treated to two scenes with the family enjoying a moment at the beach. This connection of the Sheff family to waves is metaphorical, Nic’s addiction and its effect on not only his life but the life of his family can be described as a sort of tsunami; a large wave of that leaves a path of destruction in its wake. The totality of the devastation of drug addiction is shown to great effect in the film, making clear that it’s not just the life of the user that is harmed, but also the lives of all who care for them as well. While Nic suffers from the physical and emotional effects of being dependent on a hard drug, David also suffers from the fallout of the drug through the burden and weight that he carries as a father who is worried for his son and actively trying to save his life. Through David, we presented with a stark portrayal onscreen of the utter desperation of trying to save someone that you may not be able to.
The direction of the film from Felix Van Groeningen also serves to evoke in viewers the feeling of the chaos that is drug addiction through the way that the story is told. Interspersed through the first half of the film are flashbacks of David and Nic’s relationship before addiction when Nic was just a young child. The flashbacks are sudden and often occur in the midst of the depiction of their chaotic present, indicative of the tumultuous nature of the throes of addiction. The flashbacks also allow the characters to establish emotional resonance with the audience as you are shown what life was like in simpler, happier times for the Sheffs, when they were a normal family similar to those that the viewers belong to. Seeing the family’s relationship and the journey they’ve been through serves to make their descent into the hell of drug addiction all the more stark and realistic. If their relationship and bond pre-addiction can be so similar to the viewers’ own family dynamic, their downfall and struggles must also potentially exist within the realm of possibility. This emotional connection from the screen to the audience was palpable during my screening of the film. When Nic suffers a heartbreaking relapse, the exasperation and helplessness the audience felt watching him fall back into his old habits was verbally expressed through gasps, groans, and cries of “Come on!” while watching it unfold. Beautiful Boy also expertly lays bare the reality of addiction’s ebbs and flows, with Nic constantly flirting with sobriety and actually kicking his habit for long periods of time. Despite these highs of non-drug use, Nic’s propensity toward addiction is always lurking in the shadows, just as it is for real life addicts. One scene that starkly portrays this reality has David forcing Nic to provide him with a urine sample after Nic arrives home later than expected one night after attending a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. At this point, Nic had been sober for more than a year, but the possibility of relapse, the memories of his prior issues are always lingering in the back of everyone’s mind, particularly those closest to him that have been hurt and disappointed by his behavior the most.
The story of the Sheff family is one that has sadly become more relatable to Americans over the past decade. The United States of America has been in the midst of a crisis of opioid abuse for the past decade, with far-reaching and devastating consequences. The crisis resulted in over 33,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2015 and over 64,000 overdose deaths in 2016, as well as an increase in the spread of infectious disease with a 350 percent increase in hepatitis C infections between 2010 and 2016 and a 20 percent increase in hepatitis B infections in 2015, both mainly attributable to injection drug use. From 2006-2013, the number of new hepatitis B infections in three rural states (Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia) increased among young injection drug users by 114 percent. In the film, Nic is mainly addicted to shooting crystal meth but the parallel to our current crisis with opioids is still clear and relevant. As the crisis continues to take a toll and families, with some estimates showing nearly one million grandchildren now living with their grandparents due to drug use, and Congress passes legislation in an attempt to combat it, Beautiful Boy really serves to speak to what’s happening in America at the moment.
Chalamet and Carell serve as the film’s emotional anchors, doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of acting. Both end up wildly succeeding, creating a heartbreaking portrait of a son mired in the throes of addiction, a father frantically trying to do all that he can to save his son. Maura Tierney stars as Karen Barbour, David’s second wife and Nic’s stepmother. Tierney also performs capably as the stepmother who tries to support her stepson, and therefore her husband, but also works to ensure that the rest of their family does not become engulfed by this disease either. Being the non-biological parent in a situation such as this is rife with potential issues, but Karen does what she can to be a third parent rather than the awkward “dad’s wife.” Her caring for Nic is evident as well as the emotion she holds for him and Tierney presents these feelings very well, complimenting Carell perfectly.
Beautiful Boy is a powerfully emotional film documenting the wide reaching consequences of drug addiction. While not explicitly about the use of opioids, the film feels like Hollywood’s first foray into depicting America’s current struggle with widespread opioid abuse and its devastating effects on families across the country. Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet each give incredible performances displaying the effects of drug addiction from different vantage points, one from that of the addict, and the other from a family member struggling to save their loved one from themselves even at the cost of their own sanity and well-being. Director and co-writer Felix Van Groeningen does a wonderful job of bringing to life the ravages of drug use and addiction, both in the way the film is edited and how the story is crafted and framed. Beautiful Boy is sure to leave an indelible mark on all who see it.
Image: Amazon Studios
