Alan Tudyk as Eric Moon Bloodgood as Trish Kyle Gallner as Sam Carroll Logan South as young Sam Carroll Meat Loaf as the motel manager Bruce French as Harry Austin Nichols as Cooper Gregory Alpert as Baby Shower Carl, Web Reporter Voice Deidrie Henry as Bonnie Kelli Kirkland as TV News Reporter (as Kelli Kirkland Powers) David Lipper as Radio Reporter Voice, Television Ranter Nigel Gibbs as Detective Brooke Lyons as TV Reporter Voice Michael Call as TV Reporter Voice Cody Wai-Ho Lee as Dylan Jessie Usher as Basketball Teen Darren O'Hare as Church Pastor Myra Turley as Grieving Mother Patty Production Filmmaker Shawn Ku first conceived of the film as being about a married couple in a strained relationship, but decided to add in the school shooting element and focus on the parents of the perpetrator as that particular scenario had not been depicted on screen before. Of his preparations for the script, Ku said, "So often the parents in a situation like this just completely disappear from the discussion. They’re forced into hiding. So it’s hard to do research about what it’s like to go through such a horrific tragedy. You don’t even have a home to hide in. So [co-writer Michael Armbruster and I] just wanted to shed some light, our light on these two people who’ve been both ignored within and blamed for these terrible tragedies." Critical reception The performances of Bello and Sheen were roundly praised, but critics found fault with the storytelling. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote the film is "so high-mindedly determined to avoid sensationalism that it sidesteps critical dramatic content and sabotages its own ambitions". Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post commented, "As accomplished as Bello and Sheen are in underplaying their characters’ extreme emotions, Beautiful Boy begins to feel less like a taut character study and more like a maudlin melodrama. Its weaknesses are only heightened by inevitable comparisons with recent, much better movies that touched on the similar themes, especially last year’s Blue Valentine and Rabbit Hole." Critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars. He wrote, "A film like this can end honestly in only one way, and Ku is true to it. Life will go on, one baffling day after another. There can be no release, only a gradual deadening. So it must be with most parents of children who commit horrible