Beautiful Boy is a nightmare, as it tells the story of a suburban couple on the verge of divorce, only to have that already tenuous happiness shattered by an unimaginable tragedy. The film starts showing the awkwardness of the day to day as a result of the possible separation, with the husband Bill quietly looking at new apartments listings on his computer at work, and Kate, (Maria Bello) intent upon booking a Summer vacation she hopes will bring her family back together.
They live in a beautiful suburban neighborhood in a lovely modern home and every morning the father leaves for work while Kate works in the garden. Their eighteen year old son, Sammy, is away at school attending his first semester of college, along with their neighbor’s daughter, who is the same age as Sammy. One evening, Sammy calls his parents to say good night, he sounds slightly sad but not too out of the ordinary. The camera cuts between Sammy’s parents and Sammy’s face, distraught, tears in his eyes. He nonchalantly says goodbye to his father and then starts talking to his mother about snowflakes always having six sides. She interprets his sadness as normal college adjustment. They hang up.
The next morning, their neighbor runs over to Kate’s house, shouting that there’s been a campus-wide massacre. Both mothers frantically call their children to no avail. Soon, two detectives show up at Bill and Kate’s, announcing that Sammy is not only dead, but that at 7:15 that morning, he walked into a school building armed with two loaded weapons and opened fire on the students before taking his own life.
It’s rare that a story is told from this perspective, the perpetrator's family who are left with nothing but questions and sorrow. The film then becomes a story about how to move on after unspeakable tragedy.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Deleted scenes and theatrical trailer.
"Beautiful Boy" is on sale October 11, 2011 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Shawn Ku. Written by Michael Armbruster, Shawn Ku. Starring Kyle Gallner, Maria Bello, Michael Sheen.
