Gay conversion therapy first came to my attention when a US political official had a family member affiliated with them. When you start to read about what goes on inside, it’s a heartbreaking, horrifying experience for those poor kids, who’s upbringing has trained them to believe being gay is a sin. Boy Erased is about one of those boys, an Arkansas son of a minister who is forced into one of these places by his parents, especially his dad. I know a movie like this is Oscar Bait through and through, but when Oscar bait is this well made and acted, bring on those Oscars!
Marshall (Russell Crowe) and Nancy Eamons (Nicole Kidman) are going through a personal crisis of faith. Their son Jared (Lucas Hedges) admits that he is attracted to men, going against Marshall’s interpretation of the Bible. Scared for his son, Marshall (with a reluctant Nancy) ships him off to a gay conversion camp. Inside, we get a glimpse of what Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton) methods are to “cure” these poor people of their “sickness” and “sins.”
In addition to acting in Boy Erased, Joel Edgerton is the writer and director. From the material, it’s easy to see how the gay conversion therapy could turn into a depressing slog, rendering the movie unwatchable. Edgerton smartly keeps the tone serious and dour most of the time, but he sprinkles in enough comedy in there to break the extreme tension and show just how ridiculous conversion therapy is. Jared, a writer, gets called out for a love story between a man and woman because Victor thinks Jared was REALLY thinking about a man when he wrote it. That’s simply insane. Their ideas for “curing” the kids involve trips to batting cages (to boost their testosterone presumably?) or identifying all the awful people in their family tree (because gayness comes from someone?). Those scenes are fun to laugh at, and are then paired with a scene of psychological manipulation of mostly emotionally drained children. You see how the conversion therapy represses most people inside of it, and creates a slew of either horribly depressed or monstrous people, who just want to do right by God. Some of these scenes are heartbreaking, like when SMALL kids help beat out the “demons” inside one of the kids with a Bible, which Jared looks on in horror. Jared, our conduit, is lucky enough to be loved by his mother and father, and has received some good advice from doctors (Cherry Jones, among others) his father made him visit to get his testosterone levels tested. So he goes into the therapy with a level but open mind, able to distinguish between what is his sin and what is not his sin (him being sexually assaulted). Lucas Hedges, one of our better working actors today, does a great job conveying Jared’s inner turmoil as he is being psychologically manipulated into questioning who he is. We also see how he grows and becomes a stronger person comfortable with who he is despite Victor’s attempts to “convert” him.
At home, Boy Erased also can be pretty compelling. Nancy, it’s clear, is NOT into this type of therapy, but goes along with it because she’s deeply religious like her husband. She chooses to accompany Jared to the hotel where they stay near the camp. From there, she reads through the spelling error prone manual, and deduces this “therapy” is basically BS. Watching Nancy, like her son, grow into her confidence and protect her boy when he needs her most gives Nicole Kidman that Oscar baity monolgue she loves, but is always so good at, that you’re riveted watching it. Marshall, however, is more entrenched in his beliefs, letting his disgust at homosexuality partially define who he is as a person. So when Jared attempts to talk to Marshall, he runs away or refuses to talk about anything serious. Since Jared is based on a real person (Garrard Conley), the movie sees Jared’s story through to the real conclusion, where Marshall reconciles slowly with his son. However, some of the most emotionally potent material is when other kids in the “therapy” are met with parental hostility or outright abandoned, leading them to commit suicide or kill or become shells of themselves. I thought a more potent ending would have been if Jared never reconciled with Marshall, portraying something may of these poor kids have to deal with on top of this bogus “psychology,” but for Boy Erased, it leaves you on a good feeling punctuated by Lucas Hedges and Russell Crowe’s “For Your Consideration” moment.
The end credits point out how pervasive conversion therapy still is in the United States, psychologically manipulating several hundred thousand repressed, mostly poorly loved children. Boy Erased confidently walks back into the belly of the beast to shine a light on just how cruel and evil this place “doing God’s work” actually is. I hope those poor lost souls, who are considering going to this place, watch Boy Erased, and know there are people like myself are out there that will love you for who you are, and that there’s nothing wrong with you.