Der verlorene Sohn

It is scary what we do to ourselves and our families. This is a dramatization of a real life horror. Well written, well acted and well directed.

The son of an Arkansas preacher goes to gay conversion therapy, first willingly, then reluctantly. Therapy includes religious (casting out demons), pop-psychoanalytical (family tree, family anger), and behavioral (learning stereotypical male mannerisms). While demanding truth, the conversion leader insists that what his subjects claim to have experienced is insufficient to be truthful.

I have seen movies on this theme before, the most recent being The Miseducation of Cameron Post. However, this hews closely to an autobiography, and at the Toronto International Film Festival, the actual mother and son showed up at the Q+A.

Lucas Hedges and director Joel Edgerton are wonderful as the main protagonists - the son and the therapy leader. Nicole Kidman only plays a supporting role as the mother, still a role bigger than Russell Crowe as the loving but misguided father. This is very much an advocacy film against gay conversion, and has the star power to get to a general audience.

Boy Erased is the adaptation of Garrard Conley's memoirs published in 2016. Jared is nineteen years old when his parents learn about his homosexuality. He is then taken, more or less voluntarily, to a conversion center as part of a therapy called 'Source' during which he is subjected to a veritable mental torture to force him to change and correct his alleged deviance, within a childish and humiliating environment.

It is overall excellent, with a small damper: throughout the movie, all adult men are systematically as religious as obtuse. Jared will be accepted and understood by only one person: his mother. This context is excessively negative and the movie probably loses some credibility. Unless it's unfortunately the reality ... That being said, it's clearly a good movie.

Moreover, the author Garrard Conley is 34 in 2019, we can legitimately deduce that the film takes place in 2004. So, very recently, almost yesterday. Personally, I was absolutely unaware of such practices. Incredible and appalling!

As a parent of a gay man, I believe that this is a must-see film for all parents. It's a stark reminder of what was once widely believed (and sadly still is by too many) about homosexuality. It is said that when a person come out about their sexuality, they risk losing everything they have - their families, their friends, their homes... When I learned this, I realized that my son went through the same horrific fears a he prepared to come out. No one should have to endure that kind of suffering. I hope this film helps people realize that we have to continue to banish the old, harmful, and false beliefs that our society held. Amazing accomplishment by Joel Edgerton.

BOY ERASED is a true memoir written by Gerrad Conley about his experiences with conversion therapy - that church oriented isolation of gay men and women intent on restoring them back from their sinful ways and Satan's influence. As adapted for the screen by Joel Edgerton (who also directs an plays a very prominent role of the man who is in charge of the conversion school), the film is intense and revelatory about a near cult-like 'business' of correcting the 'disease of homosexuality.'

As the synopsis states, This film tells the courageous story of Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor Marshall Eamons (Russell Crowe) in a small American town, who must overcome the fallout of being outed to his parents - his mother Nancy Eamons (Nicole Kidman) is supportive of her husband's response. His parents struggle with reconciling their love for their son with their beliefs. Fearing a loss of family, friends, and community, Jared is pressured into attending a conversion therapy program. While there, Jared comes into conflict with its leader Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton) and begins his journey to finding his own voice and accepting his true self.

The sessions in the therapy program dominate the film, with flashbacks of Jared in college and his rare gay acting out episodes with Henry (Joe Alwyn) and Xavier (Theodore Pellerin), misconstrued by invasive research by Sykes and his entourage. The fellow gay people are very well portrayed by Troye Sivan, Britton Sear, Emily Hinkler among others and one of the more realistic - about LGBTQ issues - characters, a Dr. Muldoon, is beautifully portrayed by Cherry Jones.

Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Joel Edgerton are all outstanding. The jolts of the film are many - including the facts about the characters as they are living now - and it is not an easy film to experience the truths about conversion therapy. But this is not only a fine film but also an important one for the public to learn about a process that still exists in some states.