Some time ago I had read that the American Psychiatric Association
had declared its opposition to any practice that attempts to change
sexual orientation. Their opinion was based on lack of evidence that
it can work. In fact there is
evidence that such therapy can cause harm and this movie
gives an account of that downside. Somehow I had the idea that this practice
had been banned, at least as applied to minors. So, I was surprised
that the end comments in the movie stated that reparative therapy was
still legal in 36 states (as of 2018).
The movie starts out following Jared (Lucas Hedges) and his mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) on a long drive from Arkansas to a therapy center called Love in Action. Checking in had all the feeling of checking in to a prison. The daily schedule was regimented under the command of one Victor Sykes who had all of the attributes of a drill sergeant. In his first lecture he attempts to comfort his group by propounding the lie that sexual orientation is a choice. He supports this thesis by asking one of attendees if he had chosen to be a football player and when he got a "yes" for an answer he notes that it is just so that one chooses their sexual orientation. Since this story is based on real life experiences I guess such absurd reasoning is offered up in such places.
I felt that the film editing could have been better. When we first meet Jared's father Marshall (Russell Crowe) he is delivering a sermon at a church and it's quite a bit later that we are shown that he is the owner of a car dealership. The movie hops back and forth in a manner that confused me. The first scene has Jared already at the therapy center, then there are some scenes of Jared as a college student living in a dorm, then Jared is back living at home. And there was a scene from Jared's being on his high school basketball team mixed in there as well. I did not see any particular value in the out-of-sequence filming.
The way that Jared's sexuality was outed to his parents did not make sense to me. Jared was raped in his dorm room by his running buddy Michael in a chilling scene that is difficult to watch. After that event Michael calls Jared's home one night and, pretending to be a counselor at the school, reports on Jared's sexual activity and this precipitates his parent's sending him to Love in Action. I don't understand Michael's motivation here in one of the pivotal events of the movie.
The acting is uniformly good. Russell Crowe is surprisingly effective as Jared's rather portly father. This role has Crowe a long way from "Gladiator." Hedges turns in another fine performance, but I felt he was weakest in the highly charged final scene with his father. There are some good lines in that scene like Jared's, "I'm gay and I'm your son, and neither of those things is going to change." OK, so he had tearful eyes, but he was lacking a convincing passion. Flea, as Sykes's toady, Brandon, is truly creepy. I know nothing about Flea, but if his Brandon is a creation of acting, my hat is off to him.
I think Jared may have gotten off easy, since his commitment was for only two weeks, during which time he was able to conclude that the treatment he was being subjected to was hogwash. And he was able to leave every night to be with his mother. But it was noted that Sykes would have the power to recommend a one year follow-up treatment that, if effected, looked to have the flavor of being inducted into a cult. In a punch to the gut in the commentaries at the end it was stated that the real life person that Sykes played in the movie had left Love in Action as was married to a man. One can only guess at the complex psychology of such a man--denial on steroids?
Any person, parent or child, who is thinking of having anything to do with conversion therapy could benefit from seeing this movie.
The movie starts out following Jared (Lucas Hedges) and his mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) on a long drive from Arkansas to a therapy center called Love in Action. Checking in had all the feeling of checking in to a prison. The daily schedule was regimented under the command of one Victor Sykes who had all of the attributes of a drill sergeant. In his first lecture he attempts to comfort his group by propounding the lie that sexual orientation is a choice. He supports this thesis by asking one of attendees if he had chosen to be a football player and when he got a "yes" for an answer he notes that it is just so that one chooses their sexual orientation. Since this story is based on real life experiences I guess such absurd reasoning is offered up in such places.
I felt that the film editing could have been better. When we first meet Jared's father Marshall (Russell Crowe) he is delivering a sermon at a church and it's quite a bit later that we are shown that he is the owner of a car dealership. The movie hops back and forth in a manner that confused me. The first scene has Jared already at the therapy center, then there are some scenes of Jared as a college student living in a dorm, then Jared is back living at home. And there was a scene from Jared's being on his high school basketball team mixed in there as well. I did not see any particular value in the out-of-sequence filming.
The way that Jared's sexuality was outed to his parents did not make sense to me. Jared was raped in his dorm room by his running buddy Michael in a chilling scene that is difficult to watch. After that event Michael calls Jared's home one night and, pretending to be a counselor at the school, reports on Jared's sexual activity and this precipitates his parent's sending him to Love in Action. I don't understand Michael's motivation here in one of the pivotal events of the movie.
The acting is uniformly good. Russell Crowe is surprisingly effective as Jared's rather portly father. This role has Crowe a long way from "Gladiator." Hedges turns in another fine performance, but I felt he was weakest in the highly charged final scene with his father. There are some good lines in that scene like Jared's, "I'm gay and I'm your son, and neither of those things is going to change." OK, so he had tearful eyes, but he was lacking a convincing passion. Flea, as Sykes's toady, Brandon, is truly creepy. I know nothing about Flea, but if his Brandon is a creation of acting, my hat is off to him.
I think Jared may have gotten off easy, since his commitment was for only two weeks, during which time he was able to conclude that the treatment he was being subjected to was hogwash. And he was able to leave every night to be with his mother. But it was noted that Sykes would have the power to recommend a one year follow-up treatment that, if effected, looked to have the flavor of being inducted into a cult. In a punch to the gut in the commentaries at the end it was stated that the real life person that Sykes played in the movie had left Love in Action as was married to a man. One can only guess at the complex psychology of such a man--denial on steroids?
Any person, parent or child, who is thinking of having anything to do with conversion therapy could benefit from seeing this movie.