‘Boy Erased” is based on the true story of a young man, Garrard Conley, whose Baptist family put him in a conversion therapy center to “cure” his homosexuality when he was 19-years-old. Conley wrote about his experiences in a memoir, which writer-director-actor Joel Edgerton has adapted for the screen in a manner that is admirably and empathetic to all its characters — even the villains.
In the film, the protagonist is called Jared Eamons, giving a little distance perhaps from the real life subjects. He is played with deep soulfulness by the talented actor Lucas Hedges who has yet to meet a role he can’t conquer. His parents are Marshall Eamons (Russell Crowe), a respected local pastor and car salesman in Arkansas, and Nancy Eamons (Nicole Kidman), a dutiful wife and caring mother.
They’re the kind of family who when presented with the information that their only son might be gay, aren’t just opposed to the idea, but believe deep down that it’s a sin. But they’re also the kind of family who believes that this mentality comes from love, not intolerance or prejudice.
And so, after some tears and consulting with local men of the church who’ve “dealt” with things like this before, Marshall decides to ship Jared off to conversion therapy to be fixed in a program run by a man named Victor Sykes (played by Edgerton himself). This is not to say that the film doesn’t have a point of view, it just doesn’t rush to demonize the people putting Jared in this situation. The administrators at the center (including Flea as an ex-con there to muscle the kids into submission) do that well enough on their own, and without external embellishment or contrivances.
