Movie Review: "Boy Erased" Exposes the Cruelty of 'Gay Conversion Therapy'

A teen is sent off to 'pray the gay away' in Joel Edgerton’s adaptation of a true story, Boy Erased.

For the second time in 2018, the pseudoscience of 'gay conversion therapy' gets exposed by empathetic filmmakers who, really, would be excused for attacking it with more savagery.

However, in both cases, this more humane approach delivers a more affecting—and hopefully effective—result.

Desiree Akhavan was first with The Miseducation of Cameron Post, and Australia’s Joel Edgerton is next with Boy Erased. He has written and directed this adaptation of Garrard Conley’s 2016 memoir of the same name. Lucas Hedges—of Manchester by the Sea—plays Garrard’s avatar, Jared Eamons (all the names have been changed), and, while we’re talking about 'seconds', he becomes the second of Lady Bird’s boyfriends to star in a 2018 movie with 'Boy' in the title. So there you go.

Though 'gay conversion therapy' is indeed a blight in Australia too, Edgerton’s tale focuses on a true American incident, in which an Arkansas teen was sent away by his Baptist preacher father and toeing-the-line mother (renamed Marshall and Nancy; played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman).

When Jared’s parents discover his sexual orientation—and Marshall makes clear his son can’t remain under their roof if he identifies as gay—the boy signs up for a two-week program to get straightened out, literally. He and his mother Nancy stay at a Tennessee hotel, and every day Jared attends 'Love in Action' classes, overseen by the pushy counsellor Victor Sykes (Edgerton), where he’s told, "God will not love you the way that you are right now." There’s also an ex-con on staff (Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) who informs Jared and other queer teens how to stand like real men, telling them, bafflingly, to adopt a triangular stance.

(I’ll again reiterate here that 'gay conversion therapy' is hot garbage. Yet, as Boy Erased notes in the closing credits, 36 American states still allow minors to be subjected to it. The audience tsk-tsked when the text appeared on-screen. Do they know it’s practised across Australia as well?)

Jared grows worried when he doesn’t actually feel changed, and fails to heed the advice of a fellow teen, Gary (actual Troye Sivan!), to play the 'converted' part so he can get released and live his #authentic life. (Sivan, who provides a few melancholy songs for the soundtrack, is especially good in his small role.) Sykes instead starts threatening a year-long stay at an on-site boarding house, for more therapising. That’s when Kidman, who’s on a tear when it comes to playing no-nonsense mums, steps in.

You probably expect that to be the part where Boy Erased vaults from melodrama to full-blown telemovie, but the lead actors underplay these moments nicely. Edgerton, whose last effort was the unnerving morality play The Gift, hasn’t quite figured out how to shoot films as if they aren’t shadowy horror flicks. (I suppose there is plenty horrific about this tale.) Still, there’s a lot of humour and humanity to his picture, and neither Crowe nor Kidman—in parts that, on paper, one couldn’t think to sympathise with—succumb to one-dimensional stereotypes. Even Edgerton’s villainous Sykes never becomes cartoonish; through hints, we come to understand him too.

But this is the Lucas Hedges show, and his sensitive, thoughtful portrayal of Jared/Garrard is so, so moving. Unlike Cameron Post, he begins as a willing participant, and to see him hurt and confused by the cruel therapy—not to mention a tragic incident from his past—and what he sees as a failure to change is heartbreaking. You keep waiting for an adult to rescue him or any of the other kids. I'm thankful more and more filmmakers and artists are taking the actions that others in positions of power are failing to, especially at a time when protections for LGBTIQ+ teens remain at risk.

"Won’t somebody think of the children?" gets thrown around a lot, and usually for the wrong reasons. Here, Edgerton does, for the right ones.

4/5

In Australian cinemas now. Rated MA15+ for a scene of strong sexual violence.

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Header Image: Universal Pictures