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Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Lucas Hedges star in Boy Erased
I can’t get over this trailer for Boy Erased, the movie about gay conversion therapy making its debut at TIFF this week. Part of what makes the movie so emotional is that it’s based on a true story as told by Garrard Conley in his memoir of the same name.
Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe play the parents of the gay teen
Boy Erased stars Nicole Kidman—rapidly taking over the title of Queen from Meryl Streep—and Russell Crowe as the parents of the gay teen. Joel Edgerton both directs and plays the preacher in charge of the conversion therapy program in Arkansas. And if you think that’s a lot of Aussies in one place, Lucas Hedges who plays Jared (Garrard) is pure Americano.
About the book
The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness.
By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, Boy Erased is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.
Boy Erased opens in the US on November 2, followed by Australia on the 8th. Sorry to my friends in the UK, you have to wait until February 8th! To my other readers around the world, check out the list of release dates on imdb.com