This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is a film about the parents of a teenager being responsible for a school massacre. It's not about the violence, but about the nightmare it is to be the parents of what has been a nice boy, doing atrocities.This film is about coping, about dealing with something that can't be undone, about getting through, about reconciliation, about trying to move on. and it succeeds well. but don't expect this to be a drama filled with excitement. this is made give bot expressions and hope. It's a love story, and an unusual one, about surviving the impossible.Maria Bello and Michael Sheen does another great acting job here. I'm not too fond of the clipping technique or the camera movements here. But it doesn't ruin the storytelling. when the film takes an unexpected turn, it adds to the reality of it. It's not easy what they are going through. We follow the reactions, the realization and the up-waking from the sorrow.Very realistically told I guess in every aspect, and interesting as it's just seen from the parent's point of view. That is both interesting and important, as this is rarely a view of such a case which we rarely think about and experience. In a way this film both gives us the feeling, and an impression of there still being hope even after an unspeakable tragedy like this.Meat Loaf is turning up in a y role as a motel clerk.

A gut-wrenching movie, it shows an honest/raw portrayal of a distant couple facing the tragedy surrounding their son. The denial, the shock, the grief, the rage, the anxiety, the sorrow, the hopelessness. You wonder why a seemingly normal young adult can do something as tragic/irrational as public murdering of a dozen people and then oneself. Going beyond blame and fear that is conventional in the media, the movie takes the perspective of the child's parents, who are in shock and grief, and simply can't understand what went wrong, with such a "normal" child. Are the parents to blame? Did they do their best? Did they do anything wrong? Were their tell-tale signs? Or are the socially acceptable ideas of escapism (within work and entertainment and gender roles) to blame for shutting down the ability for our youth to feel and cope with their emotional turmoil? What do our children learn from us when we form habits of avoiding communication and expression, and simply escape into a realm of fantasy and distraction? Perhaps something so innocent as not talking to our children about how we feel and letting a marriage drift apart into a chasm, avoiding the responsibility of feeling anything at all by simply not giving one's emotions any time through unstructured time or expression. Maybe the recipe for a broken marriage, faking it for the kids, and our unwillingness to work with our spouse (or move on to healthy relationships), teaches our children to never bother recovering from their own pain caused from our destructive society and communities. Perhaps a large segment of divorcées simply drifted apart because of the inevitable pain they wanted to avoid from being in society. You go through years in life and face many difficult, unpleasant, and traumatic experiences/events (big and small). When you face a mountain of pain, you either face it and risk falling apart, or ignore it and shut down. Shutting down means you disconnect from yourself AND others, and let the most important relationships around you suffer as well. Reality is that society and it's demands are unaccommodating of family, of love, of children, of leisure and intimate/honest human connection - in a world where production and profit are king. The abuse just doesn't become readily apparent until we have other priorities outside of work, ie family.Perhaps the dichotomy of an absent and silent father and an overbearing mother - both socially acceptable roles - has much to do with the despair developing in our youth - powerless to feel and express themselves and to cope with their feelings. Teaching our children to shut down, to sit helplessly in despair, until it becomes too much. That the pain we feel is inevitable and not worth overcoming. The movie also shows a sad portrayal of the parents' attempt at coping through escapism in entertainment (the father) and clinging to familiar habits/roles (mothering, working, fixing things), etc. How we try to fill the void.Perhaps the redeeming and uplifting part of this movie is how we all suffer when we shut down and escape, but opening up back to each other, despite the difficult and painful feelings we don't want to face - such as regret/bitterness over being in such rigid provider/caregiver roles - that this willingness toward raw intimacy, no matter how difficult or unpleasant, might just save us from the despair we don't want to face, by having love and nurturing and understanding from another - something not possible when you shut yourself off from others and prefer escapism and rigid roles over human connection. There are moments in the film where the estranged couple begin to talk about how they feel in general and show a care for the other, moments of letting go of the pain and embracing intimacy, and moments where they hit rock bottom and attack each other for their personal suffering and the suffering of their dead child, rather than bear any responsibility, even if just by communication and intimacy and love. In their case, the marriage ending is perhaps not so much about anything either have done wrong, but about the silent suffering each has gone through, and the fear of facing the pain that the other reminds them of, in the process of being productive and normal members of society. Keeping up with the Jonseses. Suffering which they have, up until this tragedy, learned to stuff and hide away and avoid facing.

American choreographer and film director Shawn Ku's feature film debut which he co-wrote with screenwriter Michael Armbruster, is inspired by his family's personal connection to the Virginia High Tech massacre, the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S history, which took place on 16. April 2007 in Blacksburg, Virginia and the unexpected death of a visiting friend. It premiered in the Zabaltegi-New Directors section at the 58th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2010, was screened in the Discovery section at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and is an American production which was shot on location in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, California in USA and produced by producers Lee Clay and Eric Gozlan. It tells the story about business man Bill Carroll and proof-reader Kate Caroll, a conflicted married couple who is on the verge of separating when they learn that their 18-year-old son Sam has shoot numerous students at his university, including himself. To get away from the media Bill and Kate move in with Kate's brother Eric and his wife Trish, but as time goes by they begin to question themselves as parents and is tormented by questions of why and how their son could have ended up doing what he did and if they could have done anything to prevent it.Finely and acutely directed by American filmmaker Shawn Ku, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from the two main character's point of view, draws a compassionate and intimate portrayal of a married couple's struggle to recuperate and find their way back to each other after being left in shock and devastation by their young son. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, low-keyed production design by Hungarian production designer and art director Gabor Norman and realism, this dialog-driven indie and psychological drama depicts two dense and interrelated studies of character and contains a good score by Canadian composer Trevor Morris.This at times heartrending, at times romantic, at times humorous and at times afflicting love-story which examines themes like grief, guilt, marriage and love, is impelled and reinforced by it's subtle character development and the heartfelt and empathic acting performances by English actor Michael Sheen and American actress and singer Maria Bello. An authentic and humane character piece which gained, among other awards, the FIPRESCI Prize at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.

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