Beautiful Boy

David is a loving father with three children. Nic, the only child from his first marriage, is addicted to crystal meth. David tries to understand Nic’s condition while Nic struggles with his addiction in the first English language film from director Felix Van Groeningen.

After the text revealing the current status of the characters, the credits reveal that this is based on not one, but two, memoirs: one by David Sheff, giving his perspective on his relationship with his son and the effects of his son’s drug addiction, but also one by his son Nic.

The narrative scatters around throughout Nic’s childhood from David’s perspective, as his casual drug use first becomes apparent, before deeper problems being to reveal themselves. We also then move forward, through Nic’s attempts to commit to rehab and through David’s efforts to find both empathy for and solutions to his son’s plight.

The audience’s initial perspective of Nic is literally framed, a series of photos from Nic’s youth adorning the walls of David’s study. To achieve this, Nic is portrayed by four actors: Kue Lawrence, Zachary Rifkin, Jack Dylan Grazer and Timothée Chalamet. While Chalamet dominates the running time, the use of other actors to give a perspective across all of Nic’s formative year strongly implies that David still sees Nic as his vulnerable young son, rather than the troubled young man he’s become.

BEAUTIFUL BOY exhibits a steadily increasing intensity, with each further depth plumbed by the son shown in his father’s quiet desperation. The split perspectives occasionally cause the film to lurch narratively, but the anchor of Carell keeps it grounded and watchable.

- Mark Liversidge