Beautiful Boy Page to Screen Review

One of the moments from the “Beautiful Boy” movie advertised the most, is the scene from the coffee shop. In the scene, David Sheff, played by Steve Carrell, the father, and Nic Sheff, played by Timothee Chalamet, the son, are meeting in a coffee house after Nic’s complete fall into drug abuse. They both have agenda’s of their own, David wishes to convince Nic to come home and seek help while Nic is asking for money to feed his addiction. This scene, while simple at its core, holds a lot of meaning. I wanted to share my thoughts about how the movie recreated pages 194 - 195. I will be referring to Chalamet and Carrel when speaking about the movie, and David and Nic when referencing the book.

My annotations for this scene

In the movie, Chalamet flawlessly represents the disheveled atmosphere described in the book. The book shows Nic as “chalk white,” and having the appearance of a chronic drug abuser. Chalamet dressed in black, dingy clothes, gives the appearance someone staying on the streets, homeless and using meth. David states, “he can’t look me in the eye,” showing Nic’s guilt about the situation. In the movie, Chalamet asks about his family, and when Carrel responds that they miss him, Chalamet bursts out with “don’t guilt trip me,” this exchange is also in the book. it is an important moment to show the effect of the drugs on Nic, they make him feel guilty but he is unable to admit it. Chalamet anxious laugh, fidgeting and shifting eyes show his paranoid attitude, which is narrated in the book by him “rock[ing] anxiously in his chair, his fingers trembling….” Carrel seems taken aback at the sight of his son but reacts in a sensitive and caring way, making the choice to stay calm. This is where the movie scene falls short. In the book, you read David’s thoughts of “I thought I would be content with whatever choices he made in his life… however, with is escalating drug use I have revised my hopes and expectations,” and the narration of the exact feeling he is having in the moment, it explores how his fatherly love blinds him from the truth of his son’s condition. But in the movie you only have the ability to view Carrel emotions, but not experience them. This is where a lot of problems lie in all book to movie adaptations, they are unable to capture the thoughts characters are having. The director, Felix Van Groeningen, claimed in an interview with the New York Times, that the wide angle and obscured view of Carrell is to represent the lost state he is in, however this raises the question- is that enough to represent the feelings David was thinking? The movie supplements this with added dialogue differing from the book. Chalamet lies about his sobriety, in a feeble attempt to trick his father into giving him money. He rises to anger and then tears when Carrel wisely doesn’t believe that “this is who [he] is.” Carrell tells his son that “[he] has done some research” which is a reference to the pages and pages dedicated to research in the book. It denotes obsessiveness which David is feeling but can’t communicate to his son, in fear of scaring him off, and showing his own weakness. The guilt, shame, sadness, and fear from both Nic and David in this scene, both in the movie and book, shows the strain on their relationship and the slow disintegration of their lives. If this scene is any indications of the rest of the movie, it does the book justice.