When I first heard about this movie It seemed like a wonderful idea that I have never seen broached. Had it been done right it might have turned out to be a masterpiece. Bill and Kate are an upper middle class couple on the verge of divorce. One morning they are horrified to learn that the college their son attends is under attack by a gunman. Scared for their son they cling to any news until finding out the most shocking thing of all, their son was the shooter. After going through denial they struggle to mourn their son while trying to come to terms with his horrible crime. All while dealing with a predatory media who wont leave them alone, relatives of the victims accusing them of being bad and neglectful parents and their own guilt that maybe the are somehow responsible for what their son did. Now the premise was stellar. No on had ever really looked at what the shooters parents and relatives go through when a situation like this occurs. However the execution was horrible.To be honest the actors were fair for unknowns. However this is such an emotionally deep movie that it requires the best honed professional actors who can emulate every emotion. The real killer here is the script which is,cheesy and at times boring. Hopefully it will be picked up again with a better script and a bigger budget. Done right it could be a masterpiece.

My wife and I found this movie dull, interesting and lacking any real spark. The first 3rd of the movie was okay, the middle 1/3 was totally boring and the final 1/3 a bit more interesting. The movie really seemed to drag for a while in the middle as so many movies do, they take what should be a 50-minute script and try to make a movie out of it. The acting in this movie is good, but they simply can't save what isn't there to begin with. There simply isn't enough character development or interesting moments in the story to make this a good film. At no point do we see the back story of why the couple became estranged or what led their son to go on a killing spree. I guess due to this being a low budget film or 1st time director there is no variation in the film and it is flat throughout. A very reserved film style that lacks anything fresh or original. I'd love to see someone write a movie on this subject again, only this time do it the right way.

Another fantastic film starring Michael Sheen. As well as Maria Bello, and Kyle Gallner, both recognizable, and well-known faces in the film industry, who both also did a fantastic job.Centering around a family, who've lost touch, Beautiful Boy hits incredibly close to home for late-teen-to-mid-twenties males, as well as parents. Kyle Gallner plays a depressed College student, dorming out-of- state, away from his family, who eventually breaks down, then plans, and executes a mass shooting at his school. The film revolves around the shock, and aftershock of the event, mainly how they effect his parents, who were already on rocky roads in their marriage.A fantastic, hard hitting, dark drama, which received a miniscule 6.5 here on IMDb, when it should be at least an 8.5/10.9.0/10, for Sheen's outstanding acting, as well as Bello, and Gallner's fantastic portrayals.

I watched this film last night, two weeks after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, where some virtual bystanders are still wringing their hands about how "normal" and "sweet" Suspect #2 was. The parents are angry and either in utter denial or (at least with respect to the mother) in silent conspiracy, claiming that the brothers were framed and they could not have been terrorists. The characters and plot line in "Beautiful Boy" resemble the Sandy Hook horror even more closely. Imagine that Nancy Lanza was not killed by her son and that Peter Lanza still lived at home, unhappy and on the verge of moving out. Their anguished discussions, how they individually deal with the guilt and grief, their desperate investigation of their son's life for clues as to how and why, the blame and heartbroken accusations that they hurl at each other - - these are so spot on that the film can be uncomfortable and unnerving. The movie also masterfully captures the wide spectrum of others' reactions. The brother and sister-in-law who offer their home and as much love and sympathy as they can, but still emit occasional flashes of blame and fear for how their own son could be impacted by their presence. A young author who the wife believes is a friend, until she finds him hunting through her son's belongings for material for the book he wants to write. The open house held for the home, where media vultures, neighbors with cameras, and the thrill-seeking curious thoughtlessly devour the cookies the wife baked, hoping that they would make the house smell better. Michael Sheen and Maria Bello play the roles of husband and wife with precision and depth. Moon Bloodgood (soon to return in the upcoming "Falling Skies" season) seems somewhat dispassionate and impersonal in her interactions with others as the sister-in-law, but that is a criticism I have for most of her performances. The scene where she expresses frustration to her husband about Maria taking over control of the home comes across as rehearsed. Alan Tudyk (currently in "Suburgatory") as the brother is more sympathetic to the plight of his family, but also displays a limited range of emotion. The son, played by Kyle Gallner, is mesmerizing in his few moments of screen time, and I feel that the movie would have been much stronger if we were permitted to see a little more of his college environment and the days leading up to the shooting.However, I recognize that is the very point of the movie - - we want to understand how people make these terrible decisions, but we never can see enough evidence because ultimately there is nothing that can justify such evil. The parents, who are arguably the ones who should have the best chance of understanding their children's motivations and conduct, are often as lost and confused as the rest of the world, with the added component of trying to comprehend the degree of their own culpability. Those dynamics are nicely captured in this film.