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Jared Eamons, a student in Arkansas, passionate runner and aspiring writer, is also gay. Or rather, he's figuring out that – what it means, how he could act – when his panicked parents enroll him into a conversion therapy program designed to change, or at least suppress, his sexuality.
"Boy Erased," adapted by Joel Edgerton from Garrard Conley's book with the same title, is the second film of this year to address the theme of conversion therapy, a technique that combines religious dogma and questionable science, including cruelty and racism. Inefficiency have been amply documented. Like "The Miser Education of Cameron Post," directed by Desiree Akhavan and based on a young adult novel by Emily Danforth, Edgerton's film takes place in the recent past, but his eye is really focused on the present. Fourteen states and the federal district of Columbia have banned conversion therapy, leaving many young people vulnerable to the type of treatment Jared suffers.
But "Boy Erased" is trying to be more than just a game of culture and war based on morality, and he is successful to some extent thanks to the performance of Lucas Hedges in Jared and that of Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe as parents, Nancy and Marshall Eamons. Marshall, who owns a growing Ford dealership, is also a Baptist minister, a kind and scholarly man who loves his son. Just as Nancy, who drops her son every morning at Love in Action, leaves him in the custody – or at the mercy of – his director, Mr. Sykes, played by Edgerton. More directly than her husband, Nancy must struggle to reconcile her protective instincts with what she sees as the demands of her faith.
At first, Jared himself accepts the Love in Action program, which combines the language of recovery movement with harsh Christian morality. His sexuality is defined as a choice and a sin, and he and his "clients" are required to "make a moral inventory" of their past behavior and participate in role plays, confessions and group discussions. Gradually, these activities and the way in which Mr. Sykes handled his accusations are moving towards psychological and physical abuse. There is also an element of hucksterism in the business, which costs a lot of money to desperate families. When Mr. Sykes tries to intimidate Jared to drop out of school and move into one of Love in Action's group homes, it seems likely that he has in mind the money from Nancy and Marshall as well as the immortal soul of their son.
Mr. Sykes is a villain, assisted by a handful of sinister minions (including a former threatening convict played by Flea of hot red peppers). But you can also suspect that he is an anguished and conflicting soul, suspicion confirmed by an end note on what the real Mr. Sykes has so far. The atmosphere of "Boy Erased" is not impeachment, but kindness, a virtue that Jared has clearly learned from his father and mother, even though they differ in meaning.
The sensitivity of the film, while an ethical force, is also a dramatic limit. "Boy Erased" recounts Jared's story – an attempt at high school high school, a horrific sexual assault on campus and a chaste night spent in another man's bed – mainly to give an idea of the issues raised in the Conley's book.
It's admirable, but what's missing is a sense of texture and complications in the life of the Eamons family. Their personalities are too well represented, their conflicts too articulate, so that "Boy Erased", as moving as it is, does not give the impression of summarizing its noble intentions.
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