Beautiful Boy Movie Review

Maria Bello, Michael Sheen | AGONY-OF-GRIEF Michael Sheen and Maria Bello in Beautiful Boy
Photo: Justina Mintz

We’ve all seen agony-of-grief movies about parents who lose a child. But how do you even begin to dramatize the hellish turmoil of parents whose college-freshman son becomes a school shooter? Michael Sheen and Maria Bello both have wrenching moments in this quiet, oblique drama. Yet the movie isn’t really convincing. It makes the son’s rampage so out of the blue that when the parents ask, ”Is there anything we could have done?” the only response the film allows us is a simplistic ”No.” B?

Related Articles