Rotten
In Beautiful Boy, the themes are vast but the picture is small, and the ensuing emptiness is what the characters are meant to feel -- not us.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Beautiful Boy
To confront the truth, first they had to face each other.
2011 · 1h 41m · R
Drama
Directed by
Shawn Ku
Overview
A married couple on the verge of separation are leveled by the news their 18-year-old son committed a mass-shooting at his college, then took his own life.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
69%
Tomatometer
Rotten
An excruciating drama about a couple caught in the aftermath of a pivotal moment involving their college-age son.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Rotten
At a certain point lofty objectivity is just a refusal to engage, and no raw camera work can disguise it.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Fresh
Most of "Beautiful Boy" is unrelentingly bleak and depressing, but there are smatterings of understatement and grace.
Ted Fry, Seattle Times
Rotten
This feels like a movie that won a high school current-events contest: Take a tragedy, make a movie.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
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