A troubl☂ed teen tries to pray the gay away in this fact-based look at gay conversion therapy – a controversial off-shoot of evangelical Christianity that is commonplace across the US despite leaving those who undergo it severely screwed up. It’s pretty commonplace in the movies, too, as anyone ⛎who saw The Miseducation of Cameron Post can attest.

But where that film adopted a satirical tone, Boy Erased is achingly, even excessively sincere, not least in its determination not to demonise its protagonist’s well-meaning but deluded parents. In his second feature as director (after The Gift), Joel Edgerton casts Nicole Kidman and Russe👍ll Crowe in these roles and is rewarded with performances of emotional (and, in Crowe&rsquo🉐;s case, physical) weight. 

Edgerton ups the Aussie quotient by casting himself as the ingratiating head of Love in Action, the retreat their son is packed off to after he is outed by a classmate. Ultimately, though, the film’s real burden rests on the shoulders of Lucas Hedges, a challenge the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Manchester by the Sea star rises to with sensitivity and aplomb (one tough scene in particular is rightly harrowing without ever seeming exploitative). Based on a memoir by Garrard Conley, Boy Erased allows scenes in wh🎃ich Hedges, as Jared, is hect🐠ored, browbeaten and intimidated to speak for themselves. 

At one point he is even given tutelage in the ‘straight’ way to stand by a menacing ex-jailbird, played by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame. But showing isn’t the same as condemning, leaving Edgerton’s film in a curiously distancing halfway-house between ri🍷ghteous indignation and dispassionate reportage, leaving us unsure as to what it’🐻s actually trying to tell us. Even-handedness is commendable, but here it feels like timidity.

For more hotly anticipated films, check out our list of the most exciting 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming movies in store for 2019 - and while you're at it, why not take a look at the best movies of 2018 that you might have missed?

• Release date: Out now (US)/February 8, 2019 (UK)
• Certificate: R (US)/15 (UK)
• Running time: 115 mins