Beautiful Boy (2010)

Bill: Hi...This is Dad. I know you are not gonna get this, but I wish you could have told me what's wrong...that's what I'm here for....Well, I just wanted to hear your voice...that's all

Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello) are not doing too well in their marriage, until the unthinkable happens. As they are trying to plan a vacation to make things work, they get the news of their 18-year-old son, Sammy (Kyle Gallner), being the perpetrator of a mass shooting at school. Being hounded by the media and the superficial sympathy from friends and relatives, they keep struggling to find an answer behind their son's monstrous act. The usual questions. Was he depressed? Was he taking drugs? Did we do something? Did we not do something? How could he do it?

As they avoid going out, we don't see any real duel with the world outside. When they decide they couldn't stay in that house any longer, other people find a way in to take photographs or look at Sammy's belongings. As Bill visits the place one day, he sees a kid talking on the phone saying, "The dude even had a medal for perfect attendance". Even as he doesn't mean to, Bill gets into a confrontation with the kid. They realize they have to live with the stereotyping of campus killers - shy, quiet, lacking friends, no past misdeeds, etc.

Cooper (Austin Nichols) comes across as a friend of Kate who gets his to-be-released books first revised by Kate. When Kate finds out the real purpose of Cooper's visits, she asks him to leave. And in that scene, Cooper says, "I was just trying to see who Sammy was....I'm just trying to show them he was human too, no different from anyone else. Everyone is capable of such rage....It's no one's fault what happened...It's not your fault, not your husband's...that's all I'm trying to say". Well, exactly what I'd like to say too about some of those kids. However, even someone's offer of help can seem like an intrusion. Just like Bill realizes on his first day in office after the tragedy.

As they keep struggling to come to terms with their environment, they finally see they have only themselves to fall back on.

A brilliant, sensitive subject for a movie that I'd highly recommend, specially with Sandy Hook incident being so fresh in our minds. Sammy wasn't evil. Neither was the Sandy Hook kid. Let's not be too quick to judge.

Rating - 7.5/10