I watched beautiful boy 2 nights ago. It seemed disjointed and somewhat superficial and impersonal.
It’s as though this family was swept into a terrifying journey through their son’s addiction and then the storm ended and that was it. It’s an experiential story that seems to lack the reflections and insights I was craving as the mother of a person who suffered from addiction. There is no moral to this story, no lessons or pearls of knowledge, nothing to educate us.

In fact, the message of this story seems to convey that everyone but the person with addiction is a victim with no choices, and only a person suffering from addiction can help themselves. Worse, it seems to suggest that being addicted to substances were a choice. Neuroscience tells us otherwise. With great actors and a timely and socially relevant theme, I think the implied promise of this film is misleading/disappointing and I give it 2 thumbs down.

Tamara Scullion, MSTH Leader for Quebec