Boy Erased

After a successful directorial debut with the brilliant thriller The Gift, Joel Edgerton is back with a surprising second film. Based on a true story, Boy Erased is a sensitive portrait of conservative America and of homosexuals forced to take part in so-called conversion therapy. The title boy is Jared (Lucas Hedges), a 19-year-old from a small town in Arkansas who forswears his desires. A young Baptist and the son of a respected pastor, he can't afford to be openly gay. When the truth comes out, however, he wants to believe that he can change. He ends up at a facility where military drills, selective readings of the Bible and homophobia are used to allegedly put young people on to the only proper, i.e., heterosexual, path. Boy Erased is a portrait of the labyrinthine path to self-acceptance. Edgerton-the director plays an unethical therapist-presents, in a moving way, the brutal process of coming to terms with oneself. He treats his characters with empathy, not only the confused Jared but also his parents. He is helped by restrained performances by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.