Beautiful Boy, based on books written by David and Nic Sheff - Seven out of 10

Beautiful Boy, based on books written by David and Nic Sheff

Seven out of 10

The motion picture is compelling and knowing that it is based on a true-life story adds to the gravitas, the message of the film.

Nonetheless, it is difficult to see why, except for some possible reasons, but the feature is less than exhilarating.

Steve Carell is wonderful in the role of David Sheff, the author of the book Beautiful Boy, on which the movie is based.

Timothee Chalamet – acclaimed for the recent Call Me by Your Name – is nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in this film.

This means that people who know much better feel that his acting was one of the best in the past year.

Alas, for this viewer it had the opposite effect, detracting from the pleasure, minimizing the effect of the excellent Carell performance.

But, as one comedian once joked about If by Rudyard Kipling

“If you can keep your head when all about you.

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you”

The hilarious conclusion in the standup act was that you are not superior to them, but need desperately a medical checkup.

Therefore, you should go along with the professionals who have said that Chalamet is great and he derives a Globe.

Indeed, the character of Nic Sheff is part of the reason why one could reject the messenger aka the actor.

Robert Cialdini is the classic author of a fundamental book, Influence, in which he explains among so many other things how we come to dislike, sometimes hate the weatherman or woman.

It is one of the Six Principles of Influence at Work, Social Proof, and the fact that we associate the messenger, with the information they carry- thus they used to be killed in ancient days, when they brought bad news.

The personage of Nic Sheff is very difficult to portray, for he is at times the Beautiful Boy, only to become a demon in a flash.

He steals the eight dollars his young brother has managed to save and does other appalling things.

As soon as he becomes a drug addict, his personality changes and as a meth user, we get to learn together with his aggrieved, devastated father about the permanent damage this chemical produces in the brain.

Indeed, one merit of the film is that we can see – but it has been there so many times before – what drugs do to you.

The message is thus very simple – a Beautiful Boy becomes a monster, deceiving his parent and all those around him.

There is no telling where he would be at any given moment, he runs away from home, when he is committed, he escapes from there too.

The antihero has used any kind of drug imaginable, more or less, from marijuana, with which he tempts his father in one scene, to meth.

In his effort to understand, feel the emotions of his son, be closer to him, David Sheff smokes marijuana with him.

Furthermore, he seeks advice from many experts, reads all he can find on the subject and even snorts cocaine.

Nevertheless, there comes the moment when Nic calls him – again, for there are multiple communications, and the miserable parent has to drive or fly so many times to try and recuperate the Prodigal Son – and David says he cannot help him.

Karen, his second wife, had already stated the obvious, that there is no more he can do and David has to be there for his family.

With Nic at the age of eighteen, there is little that his parent can do and what he had already done, chasing him everywhere in the multiple cases when he got high and went missing, was in vain.

Well, perhaps not altogether futile, for there may be hope and although the end is not mentioned here, let us just say that with the credits, we find that there are organizations that try to help the addicts.

Although funding is scarce – the leader of America and the world is much more concerned, obsessed actually with a stupid wall – families can find guidance and support when they face this calamity – drug use and addiction are the number one cause of death in the US for those under 40 ( was it 40 or 50?)