Beautiful Boy

In the movie, “Beautiful Boy,” I never got the sense that there was a spiritual dimension to Nic’s recovery.  There is no mention of a higher power, much less God.  He has all the recovery lingo, goes to meetings, has a sponsor, but where is step 11?  Maybe it is the only way the movie could be commercially made.  Skip mediations and higher power stuff.  At one point Nic goes to the bathroom at his girlfriend’s home and sees a bottle of pills on the counter.  This is the moment when the program of recovery says only a power greater than yourself will save you from the temptation.  He takes the pills.  He begins another run of addictive behavior.  During the credits at the end of the movie, the voiceover is of Nic reading the poet Bukowski.  I read Bukowski.  Oops!  I’ve said too much.  But even Bukowski, in the free verse poem Nic reads, though seeming to hate everything, including opera and oranges, comes to an experience of connection in the simple, everyday experiences of life.  This is where the higher power hangs out.  The fear based person misses it.  So maybe Nic found his soul to fill the emptiness, but only after the story depicted in the movie.  One can only hope.  There but for the grace of God, huh guys?