Jump to the good stuff: The Story | Some Thoughts | The Final Verdict
The Story:
Boy Erased is a biographical drama based on Gerrard Conley’s memoir of the same name. Although the film is based on a memoir, it changes the names of the characters and adds some fictional scenes.
Lucas Hedges plays Jared Eamons, the closeted gay son of a Baptist minister (Russell Crowe) and owner of a car dealership in Arkansas. After Jared experiences a traumatizing event with another male college student that leaves him hurt and confused, his mother, Nancy (Nicole Kidman), gets a phone call from a man posing as a college counselor who outs him. Discovering that their son is gay, Jared’s parents freak out, call in two pastors from the church, and decide to ship Jared off to Love in Action, a gay conversion assessment camp in Memphis, TN.
Jared and Nancy travel to Memphis for Jared to attend Love in Action. Although Nancy wants to talk to Jared about therapy, he refuses to do so. Jared explains that they’re not allowed to discuss the treatment, which makes her curious. It doesn’t take long before Nancy begins to question what’s going on at Love in Action.
The rest of the movie is about Nancy and Jared realizing the truth about gay conversion therapy.
Some Thoughts:
The bulk of Boy Erased takes place in Love in Action, so we get a good look at the horrors that Jared goes through. How he came to be there is told through memories that don’t give any depth to who Jared is or his internal struggle with being gay.
Despite Jared being the main character in Boy Erased, we know little about him. Jared seems to have no friends in high school or college. We know he dated a girl in high school, but how did they meet? He has relationships with two men in college, Xavier (Théodore Pellerin) and Henry (Joe Alwyn), but those are vague and a bit unbelievable. We know Jared went to college, that he runs, but not much else.
Jared meets Henry in college. Both Jared and Henry are religious, but we never hear them talk about their faith. Henry takes Jared to his church, which is the polar opposite of the services Jared attends at home. Jared never talks to Henry about his church, his interests or anything. We see them run together, and Jared lusting after Henry, but that’s about it.
While it’s obvious that Jared has the hots for Henry, there isn’t any sexual tension between them. Because of that, the scene where Henry rapes Jared is awkward, clumsy and unbelievable.
Jared’s relationship with Xavier is the opposite of what he had with Henry, but it’s so nonsensical that I can’t be bothered talking about it.
We get a better understanding of the other people in conversion therapy than Jared. Their only purpose is to give an understanding of the dynamics of Love in Action, but they have more nuance and depth than the main character. There’s the young man playing along so he can leave, the woman who is brainwashed into believing what she’s told, the man suffering so badly with internalized homophobia that he won’t allow himself to touch another man, the gay football player who is beaten and traumatized. Every one of them is far more interesting than Jared.
Kidman and Crowe are fine as Jared’s parents, but their characters aren’t strong enough to carry the film. They give the best performances in Boy Erased, but that isn’t saying much. Hedges’ acting is so mediocre that the actors playing the Love in Action participants far outshine him.
The Final Verdict:
Very little thought or effort was given to the story, and the lack of character development is appalling. The viewer feels no connection with the main character, making Boy Erased a dull waste of time. Prayers for Bobby did a better job telling the story of a family torn apart by the treatment of their gay son than Boy Erased.