Repetitive 'Beautiful Boy' still has beautiful moments
Based on separate, bestselling memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff and directed by Felix Van Groeningen, 鈥淏eautiful Boy鈥� has its share of powerful moments and more than its share of unrealized ones.
Steve Carell plays David Sheff, a freelance journalist in northern California whose son Nic, played by Timoth茅e Chalamet, is a crystal meth addict. The agony of watching his son self-destruct comes through in flashes in Carell鈥檚 performance, and Chalamet is occasionally scary-touching as someone whose addictions have become the core of his being.
But the film is overlong and repetitive and riddled with unneeded flashbacks showing the family in better times. The filmmakers can鈥檛 seem to decide if they want to play the blame game 鈥� was it Nic鈥檚 upbringing, his parents鈥� divorce, etc., that brought him to this? 鈥� or if it's all unexplainable. Whatever the approach, there isn鈥檛 enough psychological heft to the drama to make it seem much more than generic. Grade:聽C+ (Rated R for drug content throughout, language, and brief sexual material.)
