ericsinclair3 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.

Film Watchin Fool Watch this if....you want to see some first rate acting hold together a dull storyline. Acting/Casting: 7.5* - Honestly, this is the only part of the movie that is worth your time. Bello and Sheen are really good and portray their parts with some true passion. The supporting cast is good, but those two really shine.Directing/Cinematography/Technical: 5.5* - I don't know how to explain it, but I was utterly bored. I watched an hour in the first viewing and turned it off due to the dull content and finished it the next day. The second day didn't provide much more fulfillment either.Plot/Characters: 5.5* - A married couple is having issues and their son is having some issues as well. More focused on their own troubles, the couple must deal with the aftermath that ensues after their son decides to kill himself and others in a college mass shooting incident. Sounds intriguing, but really is a letdown.Entertainment Value: 5.5* - I don't care that it was an independent film and that it was a character study, the movie was plain boring. The acting is the only thing that makes it watchable and that alone doesn't carry it. Watch with caution and not late at night.My Score: 7.5+5.5+5.5+5.5 = 24/4 = 6.0Email your thoughts to filmwatchinfool@gmail.com

dslav1927 wow...i have been wanting to see this movie for a long time, and after seeing it last night, i don't know why i wanted to see it. brutal. NOTHING HAPPENS. a kid commits suicide and kills a bunch of people...that's basically it. honestly, i think that it was an UNREALISTIC account of how something like that would actually happen, especially the aftermath. there were no threats, no fights, no phone calls...the writer that the wife was seeing never wrote the book. for the crime that the boy committed, there was almost no follow up- which is unrealistic. i just don't understand how this can be seen as anything other than the WORST movie ever. i think there should of been more scenes with the writer, i think that would of added some spice to a very dull movie. i think there should of been more scenes with the media, with random people in public. there should of been more "searching for answers"- because an incident like the one in this movie doesn't just develop overnight...there had to of been more evidence that the movie should of unfolded. there also should of been more flashbacks to when the boy was much younger...other than the very first scene, this movie is more about the parents grieving than it is the actually shooting, which i thought was terrible in terms of the plot. i think that the general idea was good, but the plot was absolutely abysmal...NOTHING happened.

gradyharp BEAUTIFUL BOY fills a gap in our understanding of how events change us. The story is three stories, really: a marriage in disarray due to an increasing distance between a husband and wife, the terrifying discovery that an only child is dead, and the horror of the reality that that dead child murdered classmates and faculty at his college without a knowledgeable prodrome. It speaks loudly to contemporary marriages and families torn asunder by lack of communication in a time of sheltered or imposed privacy of cellphones, blogging, computers that prevent face to face communications at critical times.Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello) are living a stalemate of a marriage on the brink of ending: Kate is a proofreader for writers (currently for Cooper played with great sincerity by Austin Nichols) while Bill immerses himself in his business life. They now have separate bedrooms, their only tie is their son Sammy (Kyle Gallner) who is off to his first year of college. Bill and Kate learn that there has been a shooting incident at Sammy's college and that a number of students were killed. When police arrive at their home they receive the news that Sammy is among the dead but worse than that, Sammy is the one who killed all the students and faculty and they committed suicide. Bill and Kate are devastated, become the source of the paparazzi and move in with Kate's bother Eric (Alan Tudyk) and sister-in-law Trish (Moon Bloodgood) and their young son. The tension continues to build and when Kate attempts to hide her grief by caring for the brother's house and family, Bill and Kate move to a motel run by a compassionate clerk (Meat Loaf Aday). Events happen and Bill and Kate flirt with restoring their marriage only to separate: the manner in which they find their way back toward sanity by confronting their own demons is the quiet way in which this story ends. Instead of a predictable happy ending the audience is left in the throes of the mending process - a writer/director choice that makes the film far more dramatic than most.Sheen and Bello give razor sharp portrayals of these two devastated, questioning people. This is their film and the way they react to every moment of the story is simply uncanny. Their performances are staggeringly well done. But then the entire cast is polished, making this film a model for other films about difficult life situations credible. Grady Harp