Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2018: Russell Crowe in Boy Erased

Russell Crowe did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Marshall Eamons in Boy Erased.

There is this perspective that Russell Crowe's career has been on a downward slope ever since the end of his Oscar run with a win for Gladiator, and a last second loss for A Beautiful Mind. It is certainly true that Crowe did not maintain the critical/commercial and awards success that he found in his initial American breakout, however that sort of consistency of success would be nearly impossible for any actor to maintain. This may also stem from the view of the fallen star so to speak in terms of fading from his status of the leading man. Although even that isn't entirely true given his collaborations with Ridley Scott, which while haven't been as successful as their first, they are in no way true blemishes. Crowe certainly has made the wrong choices here and there, though they are only here and there. Contrasting that perspective Crowe has found ways to effectively adjust his choices to honestly reflect his age. This has become especially evident most recently in his delightful turn as the schlubby fists for hire in The Nice Guys, and here where the film almost seems to accentuate his gut in the clothing choices given to. Of course this is not really something that necessarily matters however there is clear commitment here, and decided lack of vanity from the outset with his performance here. A very tricky character within the scheme of a film about a young man, Jared (Lucas Hedges), who is sent to a conversion therapy camp by his parents played by Crowe as Marshall, and Nicole Kidman as his mother, Nancy.

This role is a challenge for several reasons, as so many elements of the character would be easy to get wrong, especially given the type of character. One being he's playing an American southerner, and a baptist preacher at that, a role that is easy to become overblown. Crowe avoids this entirely though giving a nicely restrained, though thick enough, accent that reflects the character's heritage. This is a particularly strong accent as it just is telling of who is rather than at all distracting from the character. Crowe importantly just quietly embraces every aspect of the role in the scenes set early on chronologically. There is no great bluster, or anything even in the preaching sermons we see. Crowe portrays them with a definite passion, but understated as a convincing portrayal of a man delivering essentially weekly sermons. In his eyes Crowe expresses that every sermon is clearly important to him, however they are still of someone who is doing this week in week out for some time so not every one is this earth shattering event by any means. This is not a criticism, as it is nicely sets the nature of the character as the sermons themselves just exude an honest lived in quality. Crowe's preacher isn't THE preacher, he's just a preacher who is certainly devote, but very much so as a man who lives in a real day to day world.

Now making a convincing southern preacher is step one, step two is perhaps the even greater challenge in the film, as Crowe frankly does not have great deal of screen time to pull it off in. This being that Marshall makes the terrible decision to default to the recommendation to send his son to a conversion therapy camp suggested by other people at their family's church. This is as the character is decidedly unsympathetic to the son's plight in discovery he is gay. The whole trajectory of the character here could be easily and very much overblown. Instead Marshall's journey becomes perhaps the most powerful element in the film due to Crowe's work. This is first and foremost established in the early scenes of the film before the issue of Jared's sexual orientation comes up. Crowe is wonderful in these moments in just exuding essentially this most honest hospitality to his son. He delivers such honesty in every glance of affection, and even in his words of caution involving potential premarital sex, Crowe delivers the lines with an earnest warmth of a father believing he is giving some sage advice to his son. Eventually though the issue arrives, via technically a lie, that the family is told Jared has been engaging in homosexual behavior at college.

Crowe is outstanding in the confrontation scene as he finds this very specific balance in the scene. In that he certainly finds the unease and worry in his physical unrest, and harried delivery, of a man frankly dealing with something he doesn't know how to handle. I love though the moments where in the argument Jared swears, and Marshall asks his son to watch his language twice. This is interesting in that these little outbursts would be easy moment to curse to the high heavens and frankly turn Marshall into the cartoon. These moments though most humanize him actually as in this we see essentially the same values pushing Marshall in the moment. When he asks Jared to watch his mouth it is intense, but not really an anger that Crowe conveys. It is rather almost a sadness in seeing his son breaking his values in this way. Crowe in these moments reveals this stress that he plays as this state of near confusion of the father not really knowing what to do or really exactly how to react, fitting to a man who has lived his life with always a strict understanding stemming from his upbringing. This initial fight, which is briefly calmed by Jared revealing the nature of the lie against him, comes a second moment where Marshall attempts to find some mediation with his son. Again this scene would be easy to go over the top with, as Marshall, a salesman, is essentially trying to sell his son on the idea of traditional relations. Crowe benefits the film by resisting such an approach, as even portraying this desperate moment, as difficult as in his eyes he shows this weakness not in his beliefs but in rather what he prodding him to try to sell the idea to his son. In his words within his beliefs though Crowe finds a pure passion within just the central idea of essential childbirth, though weakened by its use in the moment.

When Jared comes out to them, Crowe's reaction is brilliant in that he is able to capture this very subtle unease, and heartbreak without falling into an idea of hatred. It is rather almost of this break in a break of a worldview he's held for a long time. Crowe is able to show a man not doing the wrong thing because he's motivated by any form of hate, but rather is doing the wrong thing firmly because he believes it is the right thing to do. The therapy of course does not work leaving to a strife between father and son that lasts for several years. Crowe essentially is the film in the last final minutes as Jared and his wife press him to read about Jared's experience. A moment that initially leaves a strained scene between father and son, where Crowe is simply incredible This in his physical portrayal of a definite shame in the man as he delivers his lines weakly as a man without any real passion, something completely against the man that we've seen in the rest of the film, showing firmly that he holds no convictions in his former choice. He still tries to explain and deflect, but Crowe shows so well the weakness within as well as essential the strain as he tries not to connect within his son in the moment. Marshall does eventually read about Jared's experience leading to the two to meet one more time. Marshall imparts Jared a gift, but Jared pushes back against his distance as well as his inability to recognize his past actions. Crowe is absolutely heartbreaking in this scene as he initially portrays just a bit of the old fatherly love of Marshall as he gives him a parting gift a special pen. It's a reduced with still that shame as he speaks recognizing that conflict and history. This is also with again a speech about his motivation, which is again with this earnest passion, though now no longer created as persuasion towards Jared, rather Crowe plays the words almost internally to try to explain it to himself. As Jared gives the ultimatum of either accepting for who he is, or just becoming estranged, Crowe finds such a poignancy within his quiet portrayal of Marshall's breakdown showing just in this silent reaction how must love he shares for his son, and that this idea would be impossible for him to accept. I love what Crowe does here in that he does not show this as an immediate change in the father but rather a most important step. A step he so naturally and powerfully realizes through the foundations of his entire performance where Marshall's love for his son was simply an unquestioned fact, though ingrained values got in the way of this. This is a great performance by Russell Crowe as he delivers such a genuine turn that humanizes every moment of his character from his scenes of devoted love, and those of a carelessness of faith.