BEAUTIFUL BOY
A slow, wrenching marriage drama best saved for home.
Should You Watch It?
Beautiful Boy takes a difficult premise seriously: a married couple must respond after learning that their college-age son committed a mass murder before killing himself. The film does not exploit the rampage onscreen, and Maria Bello and Michael Sheen give powerhouse performances as parents moving between silence, grief, anger and screaming conflict.
The marriage ultimately endures. The couple are churchgoers, and their reconciliation gives the story a positive Christian element. But the movie is extremely slow and often emotionally exhausting. Its strong foul language and fairly graphic bedroom scene, including brief nudity, also mar what might otherwise be a more encouraging portrait of marital love.
If you want to consider this difficult story, wait for home, and only if you are a discerning adult prepared for its content.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAn average suburban couple receives devastating news about their college-age son, who has committed a mass murder on his college campus. As grief, guilt and public shame reshape their lives, the husband and wife struggle to respond together.
They leave their home for the wife’s sister’s crowded house. The husband loses his job and tries to return, while the couple confronts painful memories, emotional distance and the question of how their marriage can survive.
Is It Any Good?
Two stars means this film has real strengths but is difficult to recommend as entertainment. Maria Bello and Michael Sheen deliver powerhouse performances as the couple moves from silent concern to screaming matches and back again. The movie’s restrained treatment of the son’s rampage is admirable.
The problem is the extremely slow, methodical approach. Many scenes shift from intriguing to almost pointlessly slow, making the film emotionally exhausting to endure. Its sensitive subject and strong performances may be better appreciated at home than in a theater.
The Worldview
Beautiful Boy presents a solid Christian worldview overall. The central couple are churchgoers, and one passing church scene shows them listening respectfully as a pastor prepares to discuss Scripture related to forgiveness. The film also offers an ultimately positive portrayal of marriage enduring an almost unimaginable crisis.
The movie explores grief and guilt, but its treatment of Scripture is imperfect. The mother misquotes 1 Corinthians 10:13, which concerns temptation unto sin, and gives it a more psychological meaning. Still, the couple’s eventual reconciliation suggests that true marital love can attempt to overcome anything. The film also includes a nephew being bullied at Sunday School.
The story’s central longing is for forgiveness and the restoration of a damaged marriage. Scripture says, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Solid Christian worldview with protagonist couple being churchgoers and one scene in church of pastor briefly speaking about forgiveness but mother misquotes 1 Corinthians 10:13 (“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”), which is about temptation unto sin, to give it a more psychological meaning, and movie is a complex exploration of grief and guilt, with foul language, of how parents of a Columbine-style mass murdering young adult might react after learning of their son’s atrocity, plus nephew bullied at Sunday School; about 21 or more obscenities (mostly “f” words, including three shown written on a Facebook page, with a few “s” words and “a” words), plus at least five mostly strong profanities; light violence includes news reports speak repeatedly of a shooting massacre that the main couple’s college-age son committed on his campus, father catches an intruder in his dead son’s room rummaging through his possessions and yells at him before briefly choking him against the wall then letting him go, father later wakes up in a hotel room covered in bruises he can’t remember getting; married couple have fairly graphic sex scene, but it’s in reconciliation after a long time of emotional coldness; brief upper female nudity in sex scene and upper male nudity in sex scene as well as two other non-sexual scenes; casual drinking throughout at meals, but a pair of scenes shows the main couple drinking a lot of alcohol and the husband drinking more on his own; no smoking; and, breaking and entering and many verbal arguments and one push of the wife by the husband, but couple reconciles with each other and movie implies true marital love can attempt to overcome anything.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The couple’s grief produces anger, guilt and emotional distance. How can suffering expose what is happening in a marriage, and where can spouses seek help?
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 · Galatians 6:2The film connects forgiveness with the couple’s need to move forward. What is the difference between forgiving someone and pretending that terrible harm did not happen?
Ephesians 4:31–32 · Colossians 3:13The mother uses 1 Corinthians 10:13 to describe psychological suffering. What does the verse actually address, and how should we handle Scripture carefully?
1 Corinthians 10:13 · 2 Timothy 2:15The husband and wife eventually choose to remain together despite painful memories. What does Scripture say about love’s endurance, and what does that endurance not excuse?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · Ephesians 4:26–27The Final Word
Powerful performances and a hopeful portrait of marriage cannot overcome this drama’s punishing slowness, strong profanity and graphic sexual content. For discerning adults who still want to consider it, wait for home. WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. For another choice, see.
