Review: Beautiful Boy

Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Based on the books "Beautiful Boy" by David Sheff (portrayed here by Steve Carell) and "Tweak" by Nic Sheff, David's son (portrayed by Timothee Chalamet), Felix van Groeningen's "Beautiful Boy" is a decently made and well acted portrayal of drug addiction. Its emotional potency and visual palettes often feel muted and the picture occasionally relies on cliched cinematic depictions of drug addiction, but the film's strongpoint is its wrenching portrayal of the helplessness of a parent whose child abuses hard drugs.

In the film, David Sheff, a successful freelance writer for such publications as Rolling Stone and The New York Times, views his son, Nic, as special, much like most parents do their own children. So, it remains an enigma to David how sensitive Nic, who had shown promise as a writer in his late teens, becomes addicted to a garden variety of drugs - the most worrisome of which is crystal meth.

Much of the picture is told from David's point of view, although his ex-wife, Vicki (Amy Ryan), and current wife, Karen (Maura Tierney), share in his quest to attempt to save Nic. The film occasionally tells the story from Nic's perspective - but while Chalamet does a solid job of portraying a soul wasting away from drug addiction, his character is given the shortest end of the stick. We never know quite why Nic has made the choices he has made, other than that he likes the feeling of being high.

The movie jumps around in time a fair amount and this, to an extent, mutes its emotional impact. It also uses a meeting between David and a doctor (Timothy Hutton) as a framing device, but it's unclear why the filmmakers chose to do so. The film's soundtrack makes some inspired choices (Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings"), some odd ones ("Sunrise, Sunset") and others that are a little too obvious ("Beautiful Boy" and "Heart of Gold").

But what ultimately saves "Beautiful Boy" from being yet another drug addiction drama of the week is Carell's powerful lead performance - which occasionally takes emotional turns that are surprising due to the character's otherwise measured persona - and Chalamet's supporting work. The film's strongest attribute, however, is the degree to which it successfully portrays the personal hell of being a parent with a drug addicted child and the powerlessness and ups and downs - from hopefulness to hopelessness - that come with such a role. The film may have its flaws, but when it's working, it has a powerful effect.