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Beautiful Boy - Gorgeous or just Pretty

I have stated before that drama is simply not my favourite genre of movie. However, I do find myself watching more and more of these movies as I grow ever older in life. Beautiful Boy is a movie about drug addiction and how it affects a family, specifically in this case a father and son. Though I won't be rating this film as high as many other film-critics have, it was a good movie overall.

Being a father myself, I was easily drawn into Steve Carell's (the father's) shoes as to how I might react if one of my children were quite literally throwing away their life. The family moments were very touching and I loved Steve's performance. I was curious to see how he would do in a serious film as I've really only seen him in comedies. He absolutely nailed the role.

The film has some issues for me though. My first real problem was the way Timothée Chalamet's character Nick (the son) seemed to only have his addictions while he lived with his father. He moves in with his mother at a point in the movie, and with little effort shown on screen, becomes drug-free for 14 months! There were a lot of parts in this movie that felt rushed through, or like a piece of the scene was left on the editing floor. The movie really struggled to tell me why Nick turned to drugs in the first place, and why he continued to use them. I'm sure there was a reason, but the movie never really comes out and tells or shows you.

One other small criticism I had was the timeline. The beginning of the movie jumps all over the place with Nick's age; 1 shot he'll be 8, then the next shot he's 16, then we're up-to-date the next, then he's 11. Simple all over. I think simple subtitles like "5 years ago" would have fixed it for me at least because the scenes themselves were very well shot and acted. It was very hard to follow during the first quarter of the movie.

For how sensitive of a subject drug addiction is, I felt that the movie, for the most part, was fair in how the drug users were portrayed. These weren't dark shady characters always hanging out on a street corner; they seemed like real people, with I'm sure, real issues. Although the hallmark moments were very effective, I continually felt like the movie was missing something. I still can't put my finger on it. I seemed to begin to tear up during a scene, and then it would end. As absurd as it sounds, I never got the full cry, which left me wondering what I missed, or did I miss something.

Overall, it was worth seeing the movie, but I'd be lying if I said that I was totally satisfied with what I watched.

Overall score: 6 out of 10 stars

Pros:
- Family crisis moments seemed real
- Steve Carell was fantastic
- The family dynamics were very well done

Cons:
- The time jumps without letting the viewer know where you are
- Some scenes seemed cut off
- Some inconsistency with Nick's character

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