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Based on the memoirs of an addict and his father, the film stars Timothée Chalamet (left) in the role of Nic Sheff and Steve Carell in the role of David Sheff in a story about how stories drug addiction does not end properly – or not at all.
Francois Duhamel / Amazon Studios
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Francois Duhamel / Amazon Studios
Based on the memoirs of an addict and his father, the film stars Timothée Chalamet (left) in the role of Nic Sheff and Steve Carell in the role of David Sheff in a story about how stories drug addiction does not end properly – or not at all.
Francois Duhamel / Amazon Studios
And if you were trapped in the middle of a traditional dependency story forever?
In a fictional fictional narrative, the addict begins the story capable of coexisting with the addiction, if at all. The addiction accentuates, the relatives discover it and there is only one lowest point. There is then an abandonment of the addict and a desire to get help. Or, sometimes, there is not, or there is another fall and then there is death.
But the new movie Handsome boy, Based on the memoirs of journalist David Sheff and his son Nic, he follows a different path – almost a pathless way. What it's about, what's about it, is not the way the addiction is lived bybut the way the addiction is lived next toby the addict and the family.
Steve Carell plays David, a loving father we meet in search of Nic, whose fights against drugs – particularly methamphetamine – have been a problem for some time now. Nic, played both by the charm and by an exuberant gutter of Timothée Chalamet, comes and goes from home, terrifying his father and his mother-in-law Karen (the awesome Maura Tierney) and complicating the parental task of the brother and the Nic's younger sister. The director Felix Van Groeningen assembles the film in such a way as to recall the work of Jean-Marc Vallée on films such as Wild and television projects such as Sharp objects: Memory is non-linear, so history too.
We see David's early, optimistic, and research-focused efforts to treat Nic with a single rehabilitation visit. We look at Nic's periods of sobriety and the things that threatened them. We realize that the marriage of David and Karen has been severely tested by the fact that Karen (and her children) are largely responsible for Nic's behavior, but Karen recognizes the primacy of Nic's mother (Amy Ryan), who is always very present in his life. Karen's options are limited and her pain is enormous.
Chalamet uses his good-natured charisma very judiciously in this film; for the most part, Nic is friendly but not friendly. The intensity of his desire to be loved is obvious, but he manipulates his father again and again by making promises that he may even believe that he intends to hold . And Carell, after taking on more brilliant roles in movies such as foxcatcher and Battle of the sexes, does well here as a conflicting and devoted father who gives much of his life to prevent the death of his son. David never seems stupid to persevere with Nic, even when he discards his strategic choices.
The scenes in which Nic asks for a last chance are heartbreaking. So often, a history of addiction will make fraudulent advocacy or the right answer too clear, but Handsome boy is honest about the fact that David does not have good options; whatever he does, it could be a great regret.
There are times when, unfortunately, the cinema does not trust the good performances of Carell and Chalamet to bring the story. A musical signal to the nose, in particular, just skips from maudlin to a kind of embarrassing, to the point of injecting an unintentional comedy note. And Carell is better when he's under control than when David is angry – even though, honestly, even his anger in dramatic scenes is reminiscent of his work in the role of Michael Scott Officewho was so often impotent, enraged against such a comic effect.
Drug addiction has long been a subject that films and television can not turn away from. But very often, they try to create a dramatic tension on the binary question of whether the addict will be saved or not. Will there be a visit to rehab and then a moment of hope? Will there be a disaster? Such stories see the love of an addict as a process of trying to help him push a rock over a hill, so that recovery is complete.
Although there may be real experiences that go in this direction, Handsome boy presents the question: what happens if the story of someone remains in the middle forever? And if pledging to love an addict did not mean engaging him to like it until the end, no matter how long it took – but to engage to like it even if it would never be quite finished? Not only in the sense "they will always be recovering and they will always need help", but in this case, a problem once "hit" can once again get up and relax?
Nic Sheff recidivated after writing about his addiction; after his father wrote about it; after touring books. There are ways to tell this story that would have been dishonest; the means that might have led to the belief that such a thing could happen, or that would have left the story such that a relapse would give the illusion of being false. This film will make you believe that Nic could relapse again (and again), but will also make you believe that if David has to show up for Nic again in 30 years, he will.
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