Recurring nightmares, manipulative mommies, and a dad who's a real d---. "Beau is Afraid" isn't
necessarily meant to make sense, but let's try to untangle what happened. Major spoilers ahead.
With all the surreal things that happen in "Beau is Afraid," it's
easy to go down a rabbit hole of wondering what's real and what isn't.
If you get too hung up on the details, you'll just end up with a headache. As far as Beau is
concerned, everything in the movie happens for real. And Beau's perspective is the only one
that matters, because the movie is supposed to immerse the viewer completely in Beau's mind.
"I want to put you in the experience of being a loser."
Director Ari Aster told The Daily Beast,
"[Beau's world] is meant to be a clown mirror of the real world that is awful
in all the same ways that our world is awful, but the dial is turned up."
Beau lives in constant fear that the worst is going to happen. So, in Beau's world,
the worst actually does happen — every time, without fail. Of course it's not an
accurate representation of reality, but it's something more profound:
A glimpse into the headspace of somebody with overwhelming anxiety and serious mommy issues.
As one would expect in a movie titled "Beau is Afraid," Beau has countless fears,
ranging from irrational phobias to legitimate reasons to be terrified. But one fear looms
larger than all of them: What Beau fears most is disappointing his mother, Mona Wasserman.
Although she doesn't appear in-person until the ending,
Mona casts a shadow over the entire film. Her supposed death is what kicks the story in motion,
and as Beau journeys to attend her funeral, he is constantly worrying about what his
mother would want him to do. Later, Beau discovers that Mona isn't dead; instead,
she faked her death to see how her son would react. Mona is convinced that Beau didn't try
hard enough to reach the funeral, which only confirms her belief that Beau never loved her.
"What do you think I should do?"
"I'm sure you'll do the right thing sweetheart."
Mona tries to control every aspect of Beau's life, even his thoughts. At the end of the movie,
Mona lists everything she feels Beau has done wrong with his life,
even though none of these were Beau's fault. This, of course, is Beau's worst fear come true.
As Beau watches a play unfold onstage, he imagines himself as the star of the play.
Through the play, Beau envisions a fairy-tale version of his life,
the kind of life he wishes he had. Beau builds his own home, falls in love,
and has three children. Even though this imagined Beau's life is challenging, it is still more
fulfilling than Beau's real life. At least the Beau in the play has a life filled with purpose.
"I just need to get home."
"I know."
At the end of the play, Beau is reunited with his children;
at this moment the real Beau realizes that his fantasy can
never become reality. Whenever one of Beau's sons asks him what happened to their mother,
Beau cannot answer. He knows it's impossible for him to ever start a family. For Beau, this is a
cruel reminder that even in his imagination, happiness will forever be out of reach.
The play demonstrates that Beau has missed the opportunity to live a fulfilling life because
he is living in constant fear of what might happen if he falls in love. Alternatively,
if Beau is indeed cursed, then this moment proves that Beau never had a chance;
he was always doomed to live a lonely life.
Roger and Grace take Beau under their wing after they
accidentally hit him with their car. Although they have an empty bedroom,
they make their daughter Toni share her room with Beau, because the empty bedroom once
belonged to their son Nathan before he died in combat. Roger and Grace worship Nathan.
They would rather ask Toni to sleep on the couch than disturb their shrine to Nathan.
The whole situation is absurd, but there's a grain of truth to
it. Although Roger and Grace's reactions are exaggerated, they still reflect the
way that some people prioritize honoring the dead over taking care of the living.
This plot thread mirrors Beau's relationship with his mother. Beau mourns the loss of his
mother as much as any person would, but Dr. Cohen accuses Beau of delaying the
funeral and disregarding his mother's final wishes — no matter that Beau
would've gladly come to the funeral if he hadn't been recovering from an
accident. This is yet another way that Beau is emotionally manipulated by those around him.
The theme of guilt hangs over the entire movie. Time and time again,
Beau blames himself for things that are not his fault or beyond his control. He
feels guilty because he has delayed the funeral,
and because Toni's parents love him more than they love her own daughter. During the play,
he is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, and he briefly wonders if it actually was his fault.
Naturally, Beau has been conditioned to think this way by his mother. In Beau's recurring nightmare
Mona responds to her son's questions about his father by asking, "Are you trying to hurt me?"
If this is any indicator of Beau's childhood, then his mother was constantly accusing him
of hurting her. Beau must have been blamed so many times as a child that he internalized it,
and now he blames himself for everything, without even needing to be told by anyone.
At the beginning of "Beau if Afraid," Beau tries to tell his therapist about a recurring dream.
Later in the movie, viewers get to see Beau's dream — which Mona tells
him is actually a memory. In it there are two versions of Beau. One is Beau as a young boy,
refusing to get in the bath until his mother tells him what happened to his father. Another Beau is
behind the camera, submissively waiting in the bathtub and watching silently.
When Mona banishes the other Beau to the attic,
this symbolizes her crushing Beau's spirit. She is stomping out Beau's spark of independence
and locking that side of his personality away, so that Beau will remain completely
dependent on her. Judging by the movie's conclusion, Mona has probably succeeded.
"Hi, you've reached Mona. Leave me a message if you ever want to speak to me again."
It's hard to tell exactly what happened to Beau's father, because the movie offers three conflicting
explanations. At first, Mona tells Beau that his father died the instant Beau was conceived,
because his father had the same genetic condition that Beau has. Later in the film,
a man approaches Beau after the play and says that his father is alive. Beau even begins to
wonder if this man is actually his father. Strangest of all is what Beau discovers in
the attic from his nightmare: a giant penis with a face, which Mona tells him is his real father.
For good reason, viewers will be thoroughly confused. Some viewers have suggested that
Beau's father is portrayed this way because his identity is irrelevant;
he just impregnated Mona and walked out of her life. Others have argued that it all represents
Beau's sexuality, which he has locked away, just like his alternate self was locked away.
Beau was brought up to believe that he has a genetic condition that will kill
him instantly if he has sex. Beau's fear of this comes to a figurative and literal climax
after he reconnects with his childhood crush Elaine and gets into bed with her.
But to his utter surprise, Beau survives. This moment embodies a larger epiphany for Beau,
as he discovers what it's like to make decisions for himself,
free from his mother's influence. It's exhilarating — but alas, it's too good to
last. Elaine has died instead, seemingly from the same condition that killed Beau's father.
Does someone actually have to die if Beau has sex? Most likely, Beau's encounter was harmless,
but Beau's mother has scarred him so deeply that he believes something horrible will happen if he
disobeys her. Beau fears it might be true, so naturally that makes it true for him.
Watching "Beau if Afraid," audiences may be reminded of "The Truman Show." Both movies
ultimately reveal that the protagonist's loved ones are all involved in a conspiracy,
and it turns out that a parental figure with godlike abilities is the one pulling
all the strings. In "The Truman Show," it's Christof; in "Beau," it's Mona.
At the end of "Beau is Afraid," Mona reveals that Beau's therapist worked for her all along,
secretly recording all his therapy sessions with Beau. In retrospect,
that explains why the therapist was so preoccupied with telling Beau that
it was okay to say bad things about his mother: to trick him.
"Do you ever wish that she was dead?"
"What?"
Were Grace and Roger in on it, too? After all, the couple has surveillance cameras
constantly pointed at Beau, and Roger's excuse for why he can't drive Beau to his
mother's house seems awfully convenient. Of course, since Grace is the one who tells Beau
where to find the camera footage, it's possible she could've gotten cold feet.
The biggest question mark is Elaine. It's unclear if Elaine's sudden death was all
part of Mona's plan or something Mona simply capitalized on after it happened.
After Beau discovers that Grace and Roger were spying on him,
Toni tells him, "You failed your stupid test!" Toni never elaborates on this,
but it's possible she means that Mona's funeral was a test of Beau's dedication to his mother,
and Beau "failed" because he didn't beg hard enough for Toni's parents to take him. In fact,
everything that happens in the film could be seen as a test of Beau's loyalty. Apparently
Mona has been watching Beau the whole time, waiting for him to screw up.
If it is a test, then Beau was set up to fail. Nowhere is this more apparent than when Dr.
Cohen and Mona humiliate Beau in a dramatic trial that is clearly stacked against him.
All this points to the possible theory that Beau's entire universe was created by Mona to test her
son. After all, Mona Wasserman's hometown of Wasserton is clearly named after her,
which suggests that the entire world revolves around her. The photos on
Mona's walls, which show Beau posing in advertisements for his mother's business,
hint at the possibility that Beau's memories of his childhood could be no more real than
these advertisements. And her company logo appears everywhere in Beau's life.
Or perhaps Beau's world is a metaphor for his mother's suffocating presence.
Beau's trial ends when his boat explodes, presumably killing him. Although Beau's
death seems random and pointless, there might actually be a method to this madness.
One possible interpretation is that the explosion demonstrates Mona's total control over Beau's
life. She brought him into this world, and she can take him right back out. So she does exactly that,
though she seems to immediately regret it, because viewers can hear her distant sobbing.
Or maybe Beau did successfully kill his mother,
and the trial exists only in his head, as a manifestation of his
guilt. Perhaps the "explosion" is Beau punishing himself for Mona's murder.
Alternatively, there's another way to read the ending of "Beau is Afraid." Perhaps Beau allows
himself to die because he knows it's the only way he can break free of his mother's control.
While Mona clearly enjoys tormenting Beau, she doesn't seem to want him dead,
as suggested by her crying in the end. Once again, viewers may be reminded of a scene
from "The Truman Show," where Truman ties himself to a boat in the middle
of a storm and then dares Christof to kill him. Although Beau's life is in his mother's hands,
perhaps he will get the final laugh, because now he has figured out exactly how to hurt her.