Eight years ago, the ‘It Gets Better’ campaign originated in Los Angeles to comfort LGBTQ youth who were susceptible to suicide or bullying, and reassured them that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Boy Erased provides a similar glimmer of hope, albeit after making you live the detailed horrors of conversion therapy, before quietly whispering in your ears — it gets better. The tragedy lies in not only what’s depicted in Boy Erased but also in the sheer need for a film like this today, where conversion therapy and similar programmes still take place in the US and around the world.
- Director: Joel Edgerton
- Cast: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joe Alwyn, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Cherry Jones
- Storyline: Jared is sent to conversion camp after his parents discover his attraction towards men
This year witnessed Hollywood releasing not one but two films on conversion therapy: Boy Erased and The Miseducation of Cameron Post , which won accolades at Sundance. While Cameron, a teenage girl, is forcibly sent to a conversion camp after being caught making out with her friend, Jared (Lucas Hedges) in Boy Erased is more willing to seek help, triggered by a number of incidents. Both their fate and tribulations are the same, but the conflict for Jared is as external as it is internal. He is the son of a pastor and a religious mother, who are as keen, if not more, that he be converted. For them it’s a battle between god and devil but for him it’s a tussle between desire and deviance. More invested in Jared’s reconciliation with his parents and their struggle with religion and love for their son, Boy Erased seldom allows its characters to go beyond what one would expect of them. The film barely challenges assumptions and pre-defined roles, providing for almost no new perspective. Unlike in Doubt (2008), Boy Erased is unable to fully capture the conflict between religion and sexual conduct.
Instead, the film faces the risk of preaching to the choir and eventually enrols itself in the long list of “queer films” that weigh heavy on sorrow and agony, making you wonder if tragedy is the new queer caricature right after ridicule.
Unlike Cameron Post which finds humour and impudence in gay conversion camps, Boy Erased , based on Garrard Conley's 2016 memoir of the same name, is gloomy and serious, even in its aesthetics. Director Joel Edgerton dives deep into the issues of masculine behaviour (“Who you are on the inside can be affected by the outside”), self-hatred (“Fake it till you make it”), and conservative upbringing (“Our boy has lost his way”). At the camp, Jared has to make a family tree, point out members who have dealt with vices, including homosexuality, to find a cause to his attraction. The film provides arguments that we have time and again dismissed but see the characters internalise them. Jared’s frustration, therefore, is palpable, which Hedges brings out with utmost empathy and sensitivity. Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman perfectly embody the role of misguided parents who are not inherently bigoted but simply want their son to be “healed”. Therein lies the power of Boy Erased — it’s not the tragedy of Jared’s conversion (or the lack thereof) but the struggle of those around him, who have to come to terms with their own baseless bigotry.
