We know by the end that Beau’s mother has manipulated and controlled much of what happened to Beau, though plenty is left uncertain if it was part of her plan or not. I‘ll need to see it on streaming or BR to freeze frame the mom’s photo that is a collage of all her employees as I only saw Roger, but we know his wife Grace was also working for Beau’s mother due to her “stop incriminating yourself” note she secretly gave Beau.
But this leaves the teenage daughter Toni in doubt. Was she working for the mother as well, and was her death real? Also, Grace’s reaction to finding her daughter dead, legit or not? The many possibilities are:
-it was all an act, and they were all working for the mother. Even Jeeves, the former veteran, aimed his shots carefully not to actually hit Beau
-the parents were both working for the mom, but not Toni. She legit hates how her parents never got over her older brother’s death, and kills herself. This would also serve as foreshadowing if Beau’s death is actual suicide at the end fueled by his mother’s actions. This also means Grace’s despair at finding Toni dead and her ordering Jeeves to rip Beau apart is real and not part of Beau’s mother’s plans, but again due to how many people work for her (likely including most if not all of the Orphans of the Forest), she can use them as meat shields to give Beau time to escape, and if Beau is killed, well the mother will just view it as him “not trying hard enough to get to the funeral” because, as established, she already sees him as “guilty”
-they’re all working for the mom, but the daughter secretly disapproves of what they’re doing to Beau. Her offering the paint can to Beau is her way of giving him the option of a less horrifying death than what she knows awaits him at his mother’s whims. This is why she shows so much hatred of Beau for most of their time together, because he reflects her, two victims with no control or freedom in their lives. And Grace’s reaction and Jeeves’ attempts to kill him are legit again as in the second possibility
-also take into account Grace’s “stop incriminating yourself” note. So she’s working for the mother, but does she honestly believe Beau is really guilty of anything? We know the mother is an expert manipulator as she seemingly convinced the housemaid to take her own life so it could be used as a fake headless corpse for Beau’s mother, so she could have easily manipulated Grace into buying her bullshit, or Grace knew Beau was innocent and the note was her way of implying Beau needs to stop doing things that his mother will disapprove of purely for his own survival.
And Roger is left completely ambiguous. We know he’s an employee, but was any of his kindness legit? It’s irrelevant, and any of the above possibilities still work with how Beau’s mother planned his end. She knew he’d see the collage and the photos of the people, and thus what kindness and support he did manage to experience from people throughout the film is instantly shattered in his mind. Beau should have been allowed to become independent like anyone’s child eventually does, and of course independence needs help from kindness and support of others. For all his horrible experiences, he still thought some people cared about him, and then he sees the photos. Regardless of how many were merely acting the part versus how many were possibility legitimate, it doesn’t matter. Beau’s mother, in one swoop, took all of that from him, thus shattering whatever hope he could have had of independence from her.
This is why the city Beau lives in is so fucked up that it makes cities with high crime rates in our reality seem like a paradise in comparison (Christ, Gotham City seems more stable). His mother, while probably not employing everyone in an entire city, probably has enough of them under her thumb to present this unrealistic level of daily violence and chaos to prevent Beau from connecting with anyone out of fear.
To basically sum up her argument towards Beau:
“The world is dangerous, Beau.
You can’t trust people, Beau, even if they present you with kindness and support.
Except me, of course. So if you wrong me in any way, no matter the reasoning or context, you are guilty.
So….you’re at the airport, right?
You lost your keys? Well, that’s awful, but you said you’d visit. You wouldn’t lie. It’s fine, I’m sure you’ll do the right thing.
Well, I’m dead. Obviously you’ll make it to the funeral. I’m your mother. NOTHING should prevent you from making it on time.”
Like, honestly, in terms of cruel treatment towards a single individual (so ignoring mass murderers and such on any scale, this is horrific acts against ONE person), I think Beau’s mother may be one of the most morally reprehensible individuals I’ve seen in all of cinema. It shows the frightening idea of someone this self centered and also skilled at gaslighting and manipulation and what she could do to a person. Obviously it’s exaggerated with her high level of resources and personnel due to her massive wealth, but still an effective cautionary tale.
and to be honest I did think about leaving too. At the end I was talking to two guys who sat next to me and they said it was shit.
Chris Pine plays a perfect D&D character haha!
