THE SON : Official Reviews

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VENICE 2022: THE SON REVIEW

★★★★☆

“Love is not enough,” is the advice given to the parents in French playwright Florian Zeller’s sophomore feature film The Son, which closes the diptych begun by The Father. It is wise advice and goes against so much that we instinctively feel about parenting and childcare. All we need is love, surely? Unconditional love.

Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern play Peter and Kate, the divorced parents of troubled teenager Nicholas (Zen McGrath). Peter has a new baby with his new wife, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), but Nicholas has been skipping school for a month and walking aimlessly around the city, while Kate is at the end of her tether. When Nicholas expresses a wish to move in with his father, the situation is not ideal for anyone – least of all Beth, who sees her own new family being compromised. But Peter is keen to look after his son and, in doing so, perhaps have another crack at being a better father: something he feels guilty about abandoning.


The Son is far more conventional than The Father. In the latter, we were placed inside the point of view of a protagonist suffering from Alzheimer’s and, by swapping actors in certain roles and the geography of the apartment in which Antony Hopkins’ character lived, we gained an insight into how his experience actually feels. With The Son, we are on the outside of Nicholas’ depression and we flounder as badly as the other adults, who find themselves dismissing Nicholas’ condition as the usual teenage doldrums. “Have you ever known a teenager radiate happiness?” Peter asks Kate at one point. Nicholas himself seems to be the only one with a clear view of the state he is in. His explanation of self-harm is coherent but his father just wants him to stop: “There are some things you just don’t do!” he says, obviously baffled. Likewise, when Nicholas tells Kate “I’m not well”, she registers concern but not alarm.


But this is not to judge Peter and Kate. There are plenty of moments when they make the wrong decisions: sometimes even stupid decisions. They are not perfect parents, which is to say they are parents. But what The Son reveals brilliantly is how our roles as parents so often gets wrapped up in our own narcissistic tendencies. We want to live up to our self-image as a parent. We don’t just give and sacrifice: we want to be seen to be giving and sacrificing. We want to compare well to our peers and our own parents. Peter is competing with his own father (another wonderful turn by Anthony Hopkins) to some extent, whose acidic bonhomie burns like a 50-year-old Scotch on an empty stomach.

The performances across the board are excellent. McGrath manages to pull off the hardest role, having to maintain a connection with the audience while at the same time being true to the problems his character suffers from. Dern and Kirby are solid throughout, though the latter has to work hard to keep her peripheral character interesting. But this is really Jackman’s film, and The Son would probably have more accurately been titled The Father 2. His Peter is, to pinch Tom Wolfe’s phrase, a master of the universe: a wealthy businessman with an office view of the Empire State Building and a window of opportunity to go into politics, which adds to the pressure of looking after Nicholas.

Peter’s Dale Carnegie-esque positivity is riven with self-doubt and repressed guilt. We see his fun side as well, and he even gets a chance to pull out a dad dance to Tom Jones, which has to go down as a highlight of his career and a rare moment of warmth and humour in the film. But it is his desperate need to reconnect with his son which is blurring his vision as well. It’s a complete portrait and his aging, crumbly handsomeness suits it. He still polishes up well but his hair is a little too dark for that face; he’s a little too old for that new baby.

Zeller has proven himself a master of family portraits: the modern melodramatist par excellence. There might be something too polished – like the tables in the high-end Manhattan apartments – and slick for some: these are beautiful people with terrible problems. But even if so, Heller stands in a fine Hollywood tradition. The Son, though perhaps not as original and accomplished as The Father, is nevertheless an affecting, empathetic and intelligent drama.

The 79th Venice Film Festival takes place from 31 August-10 September.

John Bleasdale | @drjonty

[jo]

This one from a major film blog site (/Film) is so heartfelt --

The Son Review: Hugh Jackman Is Devastating In This Wrenching Portrait Of Depression [TIFF]

Sony Pictures Classics
BY CHRIS EVANGELISTA/UPDATED: SEPT. 14, 2022 9:18 AM EDT


If you've never grappled with clinical depression, you can never really know what it truly feels like. You can understand, you can empathize, you can sympathize. But "depression" is just a word. People get "depressed" for all sorts of reasons, big and small. But clinical depression is something else. It's a disease that saps you of energy; that burns you out for seemingly no reason at all. You feel hollow; gray. Even things that you know you enjoy are fleeting, because there's always the unshakable realization in the back of your brain that sooner or later, this brief respite of enjoyment is going to end and give way to unflinching darkness again. It can feel like a terminal disease — something you keep struggling with until it eventually, possibly, kills you. I've grappled with depression for the majority of my life, and if I'm being honest, I'm not doing so well right now.


So I probably should've waited a little while to watch Florian Zeller's emotionally wrenching "The Son," the follow-up to his emotionally wrenching "The Father." (Side-note: are you okay, Florian Zeller?) While "The Father" dealt with someone suffering from dementia, "The Son" is all about depression. Specifically, the depression of 17-year-old Nicholas (Zen McGrath), a teen in the midst of a crisis. He knows he's sad; he knows he's having difficulty handling life. But it's unclear if he realizes this is some sort of disease that can be treated, or at least managed.

Nicholas' parents Peter (Hugh Jackman) and Kate (Laura Dern) are divorced, and Peter's life seems to be going great — he's just had a baby boy with his new wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby), he's a highly successful lawyer, and he's being courted to work on a political campaign. And then the rug is pulled out from under him: Kate shows up and reveals Nicholas hasn't been to school in over a month. Nicholas doesn't really have an explanation for what's going on, but he asks to come live with Peter and Beth. Peter agrees to the arrangement, especially when he notices self-inflicted scars on his son's arm. But Beth is slightly hesitant about the whole thing. Still, Nicholas moves in, and Peter naively believes this will solve everything.


Hugh Jackman's best dramatic role
Sony Pictures Classics

Peter wants to help his son. He wants to be a good father. But he doesn't know how to grapple with Nicholas' illness. He doesn't even seem to realize it is an illness — he merely thinks of it as a bad patch; possible girl problems that Nicholas will eventually get over. Peter's not clueless — he's just never dealt with anything like this before. It likely doesn't help that he has a poor relationship with his own cruel father (Anthony Hopkins, in a brief but memorable cameo).


I often think we undervalue Jackman as an actor. That's probably not really true — he's wildly successful, incredibly likable, and very talented (and he can sing!). But it does seem like we take him for granted; that he's forever going to be associated with Wolverine. But when the actor finds the right dramatic role, he can work wonders. "The Son" might be Jackman's best dramatic performance to date; it's a quiet, reactionary role, one that requires him to look on, confused, as his entire world swirls down the drain. There are numerous shots of Jackman sitting alone, gazing off into the distance. That sort of thing can come across as pretentious, but Jackman has such confusion and pain in his eyes in these moments that he sells them completely.

Dern is also strong, although her role feels underdeveloped — the film is told almost entirely from Peter's point of view, and while Dern gets a few moments to showcase her character's growing devastation, we never really get inside her head. McGrath, as the suffering Nicholas, is frequently heartbreaking, but there are also more than a few moments where his performance lacks the emotional punch it should have.

I don't know where this sadness comes from
Sony Pictures Classics

The subject matter of "The Son" all but guarantees a bad time at the movies. Zeller and cinematographer Ben Smithard bathe the film in harsh, cold lighting — save for a series of flashbacks to Nicholas' childhood awash in sun — that only adds to the overwhelmingly miserable feeling on display here. I understand that's going to make this a difficult watch for folks, and some might even classify this as nothing more than misery porn. But I didn't see it that way. Yes, the film is miserable — but so is struggling with depression. And it would be blatantly false to inject some sort of lighthearted solution to all these issues — because that's not how dealing with depression works. Yes, you can treat and manage the symptoms with medication and therapy. But they will never magically go away. There's not a miracle cure.


All that said, "The Son" is never quite as creative as Zeller's "The Father," which brilliantly played around with time and place to bring us into the main character's increasingly fractured mind. "The Son" is more straightforward, and while I'm not saying I wanted Zeller to repeat himself, I was hoping for something more cinematically and artistically innovative for this follow-up. Perhaps the filmmaker thought such an approach would read as trickery, and it would be better to lay this particular story out in a more linear, traditional fashion.

Whatever it lacks, "The Son" is often so emotionally devastating and so accurate in its portrayal of depression that it left me a little shaken. Have I been manipulated? Am I too close to this sort of material? Perhaps. But that doesn't change the fact that "The Son" deeply affected me. "I don't know where this sadness comes from," a character says at some point, and it's the sort of numbing, hopeless question that burrows its way into your chest and burns an ice-cold fire beneath your ribcage. Where does all this sadness come from? And how do we escape it?

Read More: www.slashfilm.com/1005790/the-son-review-hugh-jackman-is-devastating-in-this-wrenching-portrait-of-depression-tiff/?utm_campaign=clip


The Son Review: Hugh Jackman Is Devastating In This Wrenching Portrait Of Depression [TIFF]
Sony Pictures Classics
BY CHRIS EVANGELISTA/UPDATED: SEPT. 14, 2022 9:18 AM EDT
If you've never grappled with clinical depression, you can never really know what it truly feels like. You can understand, you can empathize, you can sympathize. But "depression" is just a word. People get "depressed" for all sorts of reasons, big and small. But clinical depression is something else. It's a disease that saps you of energy; that burns you out for seemingly no reason at all. You feel hollow; gray. Even things that you know you enjoy are fleeting, because there's always the unshakable realization in the back of your brain that sooner or later, this brief respite of enjoyment is going to end and give way to unflinching darkness again. It can feel like a terminal disease — something you keep struggling with until it eventually, possibly, kills you. I've grappled with depression for the majority of my life, and if I'm being honest, I'm not doing so well right now.



So I probably should've waited a little while to watch Florian Zeller's emotionally wrenching "The Son," the follow-up to his emotionally wrenching "The Father." (Side-note: are you okay, Florian Zeller?) While "The Father" dealt with someone suffering from dementia, "The Son" is all about depression. Specifically, the depression of 17-year-old Nicholas (Zen McGrath), a teen in the midst of a crisis. He knows he's sad; he knows he's having difficulty handling life. But it's unclear if he realizes this is some sort of disease that can be treated, or at least managed. 

Nicholas' parents Peter (Hugh Jackman) and Kate (Laura Dern) are divorced, and Peter's life seems to be going great — he's just had a baby boy with his new wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby), he's a highly successful lawyer, and he's being courted to work on a political campaign. And then the rug is pulled out from under him: Kate shows up and reveals Nicholas hasn't been to school in over a month. Nicholas doesn't really have an explanation for what's going on, but he asks to come live with Peter and Beth. Peter agrees to the arrangement, especially when he notices self-inflicted scars on his son's arm. But Beth is slightly hesitant about the whole thing. Still, Nicholas moves in, and Peter naively believes this will solve everything. 

Hugh Jackman's best dramatic role
Sony Pictures Classics
Peter wants to help his son. He wants to be a good father. But he doesn't know how to grapple with Nicholas' illness. He doesn't even seem to realize it is an illness — he merely thinks of it as a bad patch; possible girl problems that Nicholas will eventually get over. Peter's not clueless — he's just never dealt with anything like this before. It likely doesn't help that he has a poor relationship with his own cruel father (Anthony Hopkins, in a brief but memorable cameo). 

I often think we undervalue Jackman as an actor. That's probably not really true — he's wildly successful, incredibly likable, and very talented (and he can sing!). But it does seem like we take him for granted; that he's forever going to be associated with Wolverine. But when the actor finds the right dramatic role, he can work wonders. "The Son" might be Jackman's best dramatic performance to date; it's a quiet, reactionary role, one that requires him to look on, confused, as his entire world swirls down the drain. There are numerous shots of Jackman sitting alone, gazing off into the distance. That sort of thing can come across as pretentious, but Jackman has such confusion and pain in his eyes in these moments that he sells them completely. 


Dern is also strong, although her role feels underdeveloped — the film is told almost entirely from Peter's point of view, and while Dern gets a few moments to showcase her character's growing devastation, we never really get inside her head. McGrath, as the suffering Nicholas, is frequently heartbreaking, but there are also more than a few moments where his performance lacks the emotional punch it should have.

I don't know where this sadness comes from
Sony Pictures Classics
The subject matter of "The Son" all but guarantees a bad time at the movies. Zeller and cinematographer Ben Smithard bathe the film in harsh, cold lighting — save for a series of flashbacks to Nicholas' childhood awash in sun — that only adds to the overwhelmingly miserable feeling on display here. I understand that's going to make this a difficult watch for folks, and some might even classify this as nothing more than misery porn. But I didn't see it that way. Yes, the film is miserable — but so is struggling with depression. And it would be blatantly false to inject some sort of lighthearted solution to all these issues — because that's not how dealing with depression works. Yes, you can treat and manage the symptoms with medication and therapy. But they will never magically go away. There's not a miracle cure. 


All that said, "The Son" is never quite as creative as Zeller's "The Father," which brilliantly played around with time and place to bring us into the main character's increasingly fractured mind. "The Son" is more straightforward, and while I'm not saying I wanted Zeller to repeat himself, I was hoping for something more cinematically and artistically innovative for this follow-up. Perhaps the filmmaker thought such an approach would read as trickery, and it would be better to lay this particular story out in a more linear, traditional fashion. 

Whatever it lacks, "The Son" is often so emotionally devastating and so accurate in its portrayal of depression that it left me a little shaken. Have I been manipulated? Am I too close to this sort of material? Perhaps. But that doesn't change the fact that "The Son" deeply affected me. "I don't know where this sadness comes from," a character says at some point, and it's the sort of numbing, hopeless question that burrows its way into your chest and burns an ice-cold fire beneath your ribcage. Where does all this sadness come from? And how do we escape it?


/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Read More: www.slashfilm.com/1005790/the-son-review-hugh-jackman-is-devastating-in-this-wrenching-portrait-of-depression-tiff/?utm_campaign=clip

[jo]

A beautiful review from an oldtimer film blogger on JoBlo --

www.joblo.com/the-son-review-tiff/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

PLOT: A man (Hugh Jackman) and his ex-wife (Laura Dern) try desperately to help their teenage son (Zen McGrath), who suffers from crippling depression.

REVIEW: This year’s TIFF has not been short on devastating dramas, but the more upsetting a film is, the more you can expect a certain amount of backlash. Perhaps that explains why Florian Zeller’s The Son saw a surprising amount of vitriol towards it following its TIFF screenings, with words like “manipulative” and “horrifying” showing up in many write-ups. Here’s another word that not enough people included in their reviews – real.

The Son tackles the unpleasant but very real topic of teen depression and self-harm. The film, a kind of companion piece to Zeller’s The Father, follows Peter (Hugh Jackman), a high-powered businessman on the verge of a major coup, when asked to aid a politician on his run in Washington. All seems to be going well, with him having a beautiful wife (Vanessa Kirby) and a baby. But, he also has another family he left some years back, and while he’s always tried to stay involved in his son’s life, he carries a degree of guilt for not always being there. When his ex arrives at his apartment to tell him their son has been skipping school and cutting himself, he invites the boy to move in with him, only to realize before long that his son suffers from crippling depression.

Perhaps one of the things that’s unnerving people about The Son is it shows that depression is a difficult thing to fight. You can be a great father and mother, as Jackman and Dern are here, and throw tons of money at treating the problem, but you might not always succeed.


Zen McGrath gives a haunting performance as Nicholas. A generally nice boy, he resents his dad and new wife a bit, but they’re not the cause of his depression, and he doesn’t particularly blame them. As he tells his father, life is simply weighing him down, and he can’t explain why he feels the way he does. If you’ve ever suffered from depression, his portrayal will hit close to home in many ways, particularly in the lighter moments, such as when he has an impromptu dance session with his dad and stepmother. One moment, he’s having a lovely time, and the next is dead behind the eyes.

Zeller brings a great deal of empathy and compassion to the film, but he doesn’t spare you the misery Nicholas feels or how it rips apart his parents, mainly, as depicted here, his father.

Jackman has rarely been better, with him playing an essentially happy-go-lucky guy, a charmer who simply isn’t qualified to deal with his son’s condition. He’s used to being able to persuade or charm people, but he can’t do a thing with Nicholas, and he knows it. We’ve never seen him as vulnerable as he is here, with a standout scene being a chilling moment where he visits his estranged father, played by Anthony Hopkins in a cameo. Initially, the two seem friendly until Jackman starts to confide in his father, and the latter sees it as an attack on him, with him icing his son out in a particularly cold-blooded and cruel way. We see at this moment what a lousy father is, and it’s a reminder from Zeller (who adapted his play with Christopher Hampton) to the audience that regardless of what may have happened in his marriage, Peter is far from a bad father.

Indeed, Dern’s Kate gets the same treatment. We can tell she’s brokenhearted by the fact that Jackman left her, but she doesn’t weaponize that and can put these feelings aside to deal with their son. Ditto Vanessa Kirby as the compassionate stepmother. In a way, her part is the most challenging as she has to convey the frustration of the fact that she has her own child to raise and can’t allow what’s going on with Nicholas to affect her too profoundly, as she has her own very real priorities. She has to protect herself and her child, but you also get the sense that she has a lot of empathy for Peter and compassion for Nicholas. That’s the beauty of The Son, nobody in this movie has purely bad intentions (other than Hopkins – although it’s suggested that he isn’t well), but in the end, love isn’t always enough to save someone.

Zeller has made an elegant film, with a terrific score by Hans Zimmer, in a rare stab at drama for the legendary composer. While a companion piece to The Father, the film isn’t a sequel as other reports have suggested, although it easily could be. It’s not as radical as The Father, which took you inside the mind of a man grappling with dementia. The style is more conventional here, but it suits the material. Zeller does make one serious misstep at the end, with a fantasy sequence leaving a bad taste in my mouth (along with many other critics, it seems – who can’t get past it), and its excision would better serve the film. Even still, I found The Son to be a moving film, and while the conclusion is upsetting, it’s supposed to be, with a final line uttered over and over by Kirby’s character that I found haunting but true.

Rating ; GREAT / 8

[jo]

FILM
The Son Review: A Difficult Look at Depression and Parent-Child Relations
Hugh Jackman imbues The Son with a tragic power that makes even Florian Zeller’s most manipulative excesses easier to tolerate.
by Kenji Fujishima
September 15, 2022


If it wasn’t for Anthony Hopkins’s powerful performance, Florian Zeller’s 2020 directorial debut, The Father, might have come across as entirely gimmicky in its puzzle-box approach to rendering its title character’s dementia on screen. But, then, New York City theatergoers who’ve seen Zeller’s plays know that such narrative game-playing is his stock in trade. Whether it’s dementia in The Father, a midlife crisis in The Mother, or grief after losing a loved one in The Height of the Storm, there doesn’t seem to be a psychological crisis that the French playwright isn’t willing to turn into a foundation for structural cleverness.

That makes Zeller and Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of the former’s 2019 play The Son surprising, even refreshing, in its straightforwardness. In dramatizing the struggles of divorced and often-absent father Peter (Hugh Jackman), his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern), and Peter’s current girlfriend, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), in dealing with young Nicholas’s (Zen McGrath) clinical depression, Zeller has largely sanded away his usual manipulations of time and space. For once, he seems genuinely interested in exploring his characters’ psychologies.

The film’s title is slightly misleading. The focus is less on Nicholas, the son, than on Peter and his difficulties navigating the situation. Nicholas’s depression has manifested itself not only in suicide attempts, but in frequent lying and deception: among other things, pretending to be at school while actually being truant for months on end. When his father desperately asks him to explain his actions, the best Nicholas can come up with is: “It’s life. It’s weighing me down.”



Zeller doesn’t try to offer any pat explanations for Nicholas’s depression, which is the more honest approach in depicting a mental illness that can be agonizingly mysterious in nature. Instead, he drops hints as to possible root causes. Chief among them is the split between Peter and Kate, which appears to have made him feel ignored, especially since both his parents seem to be trying to make inroads in their own professional careers. Peter, in particular, a rising-star lawyer, is chasing after a plum gig working for a political campaign in D.C., and initially seems to prize that pursuit more than dealing with Nicholas’s emotional troubles. (By contrast, Zeller offers comparably little detail about Kate and Beth’s lives outside of Peter and Nicholas’s orbits.)

The Son, perhaps inevitably, touches on questions about whether being a parent inherently means having to put aside one’s personal ambitions. Zeller also tantalizingly implies the danger of children repeating the sins of their fathers. Anthony Hopkins makes a one-scene cameo in the film as Peter’s own father and offers a concise yet brutal portrait of a cold, hard figure who believes in tough love above all else. “Just fucking get over it” is his response to Peter when his son brings up the problems he saw in the way his father raised him. Some of the most unsettling moments in Jackman’s performance lie in the fear in his eyes when he finds himself acting in ways toward Nicholas that resemble his father’s treatment of him.

Zeller’s refusal in this case to resort to structural trickery allows us to better appreciate his gift for lyrical dialogue and empathy for troubled souls. Which isn’t to say that The Son is entirely free of his more frustrating habits. A recurring, doom-laden image of a washing machine might as well have had “metaphor” plastered on the screen for all the subtlety with which it evokes Nicholas’s emotional free fall. Plus, the fact that a rifle given to Peter by his father is hiding behind the washing machine ends up being a very literal illustration of Chekhov’s gun. Perhaps most hackneyed, though, is a final scene in which Zeller indulges in a fantasy-versus-reality bait-and-switch that’s not only entirely predictable, but arguably sadistic given its tragic context.



Nevertheless, and like it did in The Father, Zeller’s skill with actors goes a very long way in compensating for The Son’s limitations. Though Dern and Kirby wring a lot of pathos out of their slightly underwritten parts, and newcomer McGrath memorably conveys the wide variety of Nicholas’s moods, it’s Jackman who impresses most. A performer known for exuding a certain charm even when he’s playing a character like Wolverine, Jackman digs deep into Peter’s frustration and guilt, unafraid to occasionally challenge audience sympathy toward his well-meaning yet clueless character. All by himself, Jackman imbues The Son with a tragic power that makes even Zeller’s most manipulative excesses easier to tolerate.

Score: 2.5 of 4
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Hugh Quarshie, Anthony Hopkins Director:

[jo]

From THE PLAYLIST --

The Son, Venice
‘The Son’ Review: Hugh Jackman Ably Anchors A Devastating, But Ultimately Dull Domestic Drama [Venice]
Marshall Shaffer September 7, 2022 1:15 pm Features, Festivals, News, Reviews

Writer/director Florian Zeller cannot manage to reproduce the magic of “The Father” with his latest film, “The Son.” This latest screen adaptation of Zeller’s trilogy of stage plays about families falling apart, co-written with Englishman Christopher Hampton, expands its setting outside the limited confines of a single apartment – yet somehow manages to feel less cinematic. Without a clever conceit to elevate the material, this domestic drama is a mostly middling piece of maudlin manipulation.

Zeller does get a fair amount of mileage from the sheer thematic heft of the story, and that does count for something. Hugh Jackman’s prim and proper Peter thinks he’s finally got his life in order at the top of “The Son” with the arrival of a new infant courtesy of his new partner, Vanessa Kirby’s Beth. That delicate arrangement begins to shift with an unexpected knock on the door from his ex-wife, Laura Dern’s Kate, to tell him that his son from their marriage has started acting a bit off. Rather than treat the real issue of his underlying depression, Peter welcomes 17-year-old Nicholas (Zen McGrath) into his home following an extended period of post-divorce neglect.



But try as Peter might, he cannot simply wish away Nicholas’ sadness with success. Though there’s some therapy in the mix, Peter also thinks he can fix his son with fancy signifiers like custom suits and some paternal hand-holding. The conversations in “The Son,” particularly between generations, are often cursory and circular. Yet that simplicity proves the point as the characters trade platitudes to push off the painful conversations they are too scared to have. Better to hide in pleasantry than face honesty, they wager. Time, aided by a little money and attention, is a traditional tonic within the upper-class New York enclaves in which they operate.

When the dialogue gets a bit dull, that’s when Zeller’s theatrical skill with character blocking comes into play. The film traces the outlines of a tragedy more than it actually fleshes one out, but “The Son” makes good use of its actors to sell its greatest asset: the thematic underpinnings of its source material. Rather than counting on the camera to create distance for the viewers, he tasks the performers with creating an emotional space within their physical surroundings. The arrangement of actors’ bodies adds tremendous depth without speaking a word, as does the occasionally inspired match cut that suggests connections beyond what can be contained within the frame.

Yet the family’s choices to avoid addressing the full extent of Nicholas’ physical self-abuse and psychological suffering ends up exacerbating the problem. Creeping clinical depression cares little for such an emotional treatment regimen. Nicholas’ rapid descent into the throes of suicidal tendencies poses a difficult dilemma surrounding the limits of parental power. Peter may not be able to love Nicholas and protect him at the same time, something he is not prepared to accept from his prideful perch.



Whenever he presses his son on what’s wrong or how he can help, Peter insists on a logical response. But such an expectation might not be possible or practical for Nicholas’ inexplicable condition. This stridency ensures he’ll never receive an answer, just evasiveness. As the situation intensifies over the course of “The Son,” however, the vagueness gives way to loudness expressed in either complete emotional inarticulacy or completely on-the-nose diagnostic dialogue. Whichever mode Zeller decides to choose for a given moment, he supercharges it with mawkish music and dialed-up acting (particularly from the over-the-top McGrath).


Jackman’s measured performance as Peter shines the most out of the cast, primarily because he’s given the space to show the fantasy world of the perfect family he’s building in his head. Each pregnant pause or exasperated expression further illuminates his mounting dread and disappointment. His denial gives way to outright delusion, rendered all the more tragic by Jackman’s eerily even-keeled temperament. Yet the portrayal does not simply become monstrous because the actor always clues the audience into the growing chasm between the life he thinks he deserves and the one he inhabits.

Ultimately, the saddest element of “The Son” has little to do with the actual scenario (though Zeller certainly tries to elicit tears and terror with the devastating third act). The real tragedy is the larger cosmic irony that escapes the characters but not the creator. As Peter tries to break the cycle of paternal neglect he experienced from his own father (played by Anthony Hopkins in a brief but bravura appearance), his choices end up perpetuating it. Even when running in the opposite direction of the filial failings that marred his own life, the result varies little. His ailment of trying to swim upstream against the forces of fate might as well be hereditary.

Not unlike the brutal concluding sentiments conveyed in “The Father,” this existential cloud hanging over “The Son” carries more weight than anything said in the film. Yet this one casts a smaller shadow because Zeller does not find a clever reflection of his thematic content in the film’s construction. Without a visual or narrative gambit to elevate this sad story beyond a recounting of events, the film grasps for familiar cliches like a slightly destabilized camera or restlessly sitting up at the end of a bad to drive home its meaning.

There’s enough humanity from the story and performers alike that cuts to the soul and mostly offsets the uninspired direction. But “The Son” should shine at least a little brighter through the dark material given these participants and their previous triumphs. [B-]

[jo]

Apropos to the above, here is an insight on Zeller's cinematic vision ( per the Hollywood Reporter interview) --

The Son doesn’t focus on the cause of depression but just treats it as the monster that it is. What was behind that decision?

Because I think it’s part of the issue with mental health, it’s like a mystery. You cannot exactly understand why it’s there. It could appear unfair, as there’s no clear explanation and in a way is no one’s fault. But because we’re human, we feel guilt. Of course, we mention that there was a divorce, but my plan was absolutely not to tell a story about what could happen if you get divorced, because that is not what I believe. But we try to find explanations for what we’re going through, especially mental health. And in the son’s perspective, he doesn’t understand why he’s going through this pain, so it needs to have an explanation and the easiest way to understand it is that it’s because of his parents. This is what we do. And the father is dealing with his own guilt, thinking that everything is his fault. And that’s why he’s almost like a tragic character.

[jo]

More background --

www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/hugh-jackman-laura-dern-on-emotional-roles-in-the-son-i-was-a-hot-mess-tiff-2022/

Keep clicking on the arrow to get to the actual interview.



As an actor, this is probably one of the most fulfilling times when Hugh had to portray a character!


It is both part of life's realities and one of art's best ways to portray humanity.


Jo

[jo]

More insights on the film - from its creators and its actors!

Keep clicking on the arrow to see the clip.



deadline.com/video/the-son-hugh-jackman-laura-dern-florian-zeller-interview-tiff/

[jo]

From an Italian graduate of Philosophy who has delved in film analysis and criticism.

The son Venice 79
September 17, 2022 Letizia Piredda Reviews 0

by Letizia Piredda

In the emotional growth within the family that often occupies long intergenerational spaces, there are intermediate phases in which a parent poses the problem of his role, but does not yet have the appropriate tools to decline affection for the child in an adult mode.

Here we see a father who, unlike the previous generation, tries to combine personal affirmation at work with the problems of the first child. Separated from his wife, he began a relationship with a younger woman, with whom he had a second child.

But the emergence of serious problems of the adolescent son causes a strong imbalance at all levels: he no longer wants to be with the mother, also because the relationship has reached a level of strong tension, he wants to be with the father from whom he hopes to have an attention and protection that the mother perhaps has not been able to give him, and with his younger brother. As alarming signs emerge: Nicholas has not been to school for a month, his arms are full of wounds and sleeps with a knife under his pillow. Signs that, however, are not enough to alert the father who reacts with old, authoritarian ways, such as rules of discipline "you do not do" and a rational mode that slips, leaving unchanged, the serious depressive problems of the boy.






Some pictures of the film

Moreover, the parental problems are added to those of separation, creating a short circuit that increasingly reduces the possibilities of processing by parents.
The mother senses the gravity of the situation, but between the world of the father and that of Nicholas there is a psychological distance that prevents the father from grasping the serious psychological discomfort of the son, also because depression is a mental condition not visible to others. The situation degenerates until the urgent hospitalization where Nicholas is helped by a team of psychiatrists who advise to extend the hospitalization. At the moment of the decisive choice, which the parents must take in front of the doctors and Nicholas, to prevail are the feelings of guilt, and the short-sighted need to correspond to the proof of love requested by the child.

The film is the film adaptation of the 2018 play Le Fils, written by Zeller himself; the very accurate writing opens the possibility to ever deeper reading scenarios, with a dry classic style capable of maintaining a level of tension sustained until the last, thanks also to the remarkable interpretations of the actors.

The son,2022 by Florian Zeller Venice 79 In Competition

[jo]

A review from the London Film Festival --

© 2021 MEAWW All rights reserved

MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / MOVIE NEWS


'The Son' (LFF Review): Hugh Jackman is devastating in this flawed, gut-wrenching portrait of depression
Jackman gives an extraordinary performance as a father who is trying to understand his child's mental health struggle

By Aayush Sharma
Published on : 12:22 PST, Oct 10, 2022

'The Son' (LFF Review): Hugh Jackman is devastating in this flawed, gut-wrenching portrait of depression
Hugh Jackman as Peter in 'The Son' (Sony Pictures Classics)


In 2020, filmmaker Florian Zeller stunned the world with a heartwrenching movie, titled 'The Father', about a man living with dementia and trying to make sense of his changing circumstances. Anthony Hopkins gave a stellar performance and went on to win his second Oscar in the Best Actor category. The 2020 film was based on one of Zeller's plays. Two years later, the director is back with another movie and it's based on one of his plays as well. However, his second project is more straightforward storytelling and doesn't have the shape-shifting quality of his previous project.


Titled 'The Son', the movie is the second in the planned trilogy of movies dealing with various aspects of mental illness and mental health.The film sees Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern playing Peter and Kate, the divorced parents of troubled teenager Nicholas. Peter has moved on in his life and has a baby with his new wife, Beth (Vanessa Kirby). Nicholas hasn't been feeling right after the divorce and starts skipping school by walking aimlessly around the city while Kate finds herself drenched in work. So, Nicholas meets his father and tells him that he wants to live with him because he knows that his condition will be better if he's with his father. But it's going to be a tough change, especially for Beth, because their family was about to add a new member who basically doesn't like her very much.


Zen McGrath, Hugh Jackman, and Laura Dern in 'The Son' (Sony Pictures Classics)
Peter is adamant that he wants Nicholas to live with him so that he can be a good father to his child and give him everything that he wants and not abandon him. As they try to start a new phase of their lives, a lot of things take place that make Peter understand how one of his mistakes might have made things worse for his child.


'The Son' is quite similar to 'The Father', and also more conventional. In Zeller's first movie, we got to know about the experiences that Anthony Hopkins's character had in detail. Meanwhile, in 'The Son', we get to see Nicholas' failing mental health from the outside and we struggle to grasp, like his parents, why he is behaving that way. Only Nicholas knows why he's in so much pain and what is causing all of this. The movie is not just about mental health issues, it also talks about parenting and how parents take stupid decisions sometimes in their lives. Let's not judge Peter and Kate because it has happened to everyone.


Hugh Jackman and Vanessa Kirby in 'The Son' (Sony Pictures Classics)
The best part of the movie is that Zeller doesn't try to offer an explanation about Nicholas' mental illness, which feels like a more honest approach to depicting a mental illness that can be bitterly mysterious in nature. Although he keeps on giving us hints about what may have caused it.


As far as acting is concerned, Jackman gives a stellar performance and takes the movie to a whole new level. He is touted as one of the frontrunners for next year's Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards and has a fairly good chance to win the trophy. It's his film and he has shown why he is one of the finest actors of this generation. Meanwhile, Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby are brilliant throughout the movie.


However, it was Zen McGrath who had the tough job of giving a performance that would easily connect with the audiences and make them understand how depression can take you to weird places. The young actor has done a terrific job and surely deserves all the recognition.

As a whole, 'The Son' is not as good as 'The Father', but it manages to create an atmosphere where Peter's family's tragedy becomes our own and we tend to think about the warning signs that we have been ignoring in our lives as well.
It is a heartwrenching depiction of depression that makes viewers sympathise with the character.


However, it's flawed and fails to reach the level of Zeller's first movie 'The Father'.

[jo]

FILM & TV
FILM | LONDON FILM FESTIVAL | REVIEW
BFI London Film Festival: The Son
Words by

James Harvey

Posted
1 hour ago


★★★☆☆

High-flying businessman Peter (Hugh Jackman) struggles to get through to his son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) in Florian Zeller’s family drama, The Son.

The depiction of mental health in films has come a long way in recent years. Where the mentally ill used to be ring-fenced as either serial killers or melancholic 19th century women, now they’re often placed front-and-centre of the narrative, where conditions from Schizophrenia to dementia are given a rightful place in the spotlight. Which is exactly where we’ll find Florian Zeller’s latest film, The Son, a broad, largely unsurprising drama about depression which nonetheless hits plenty of emotional sweet-spots over its brisk runtime.

Hugh Jackman, given a welcome chance to flex his dramatic chops, plays Peter, a smart and smartly-dressed businessman with a new wife (Vanessa Kirby) and an even newer baby, living the dream in a penthouse flat in New York. But when his ex-wife, Kate (Laura Dern) arrives with worrying news about their teenage son, Nicholas, Peter’s life seems about to get decidedly knottier.



It’s a film that more or less lives or dies on its performances, which is no bad thing considering the bucketloads of star-power on screen. Jackman is practically magnetic in what is very much the leading role (despite what the title might suggest), and Laura Dern contrasts brilliantly in her turn as a mother struggling to keep her head above water. Vanessa Kirby, though excellent, wrestles with an underwritten character that never really progresses out of “jealous wife” territory, while Anthony Hopkins has a surprising and deliciously mean-spirited cameo as Peter’s distant father.

Arrayed against this character actor rollcall, newcomer Zen McGrath does an admirable job holding his own. That’s handy because, as the title suggests, he’s pretty central to the narrative. Since the film is more interested in the impact of his condition on the people around him than his own struggle with depression, he’s by necessity absent for a lot of the story’s more impactful moments, and that does contribute somewhat to the feeling that Nicholas is being left out of his own movie. There’s also little of the filmmaking trickery of Zeller’s last outing, The Father—don’t expect any mid-scene actor changes here. For good or ill, The Son is a much more standardly dramatic fair.

The Son does a pretty good job of conveying the barrier that can exist between a person with a mental illness and their loved ones, and watching Nicholas’ family struggle over and over to break through is genuinely heart-breaking. Beyond that, though, there isn’t much sense that Zeller’s drama is pulling off anything too ground-breaking, and the story feels a little like one we’ve heard many times before. Still, it’s very competently constructed, and, a few pieces of particularly clunky exposition aside, the script holds up well enough to deliver some choice emotional punches as the story draws to a close.

The Son screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 10.

[jo]

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LFF 2022 Review: Zeller's 'The Son' is an Important Cautionary Tale
by Manuel São Bento
October 14, 2022

The Son Review
One of the most common stereotypes associated with critics is the presumed emotional distance from the characters and events that take place on the big screen. A "robot without a heart" is a description I've seen thrown at several journalists, but with the growth of the online film community, this dated misconception has lost its original value. The Father remains the last A+ I gave to a movie precisely because it profoundly impacted me on a personal level, so expectations were high for The Son, French writer / director Florian Zeller's "sequel" to The Father, which has earned quite a divisive response from the industry following its Venice Film Festival premiere (read Alex's review here). Fortunately, I fall on the (very) positive side.

As with his previous film, Zeller keeps the action of The Son almost entirely on the interior. All scenes take place inside apartments, conference rooms, houses, or in hospitals, and on the rare occasions that the film drifts outside, such moments don't last more than mere seconds. This creative decision puts the filmmaker again in an arduous position to capture the audience's attention through the cast's performances above all – their connection with the characters and their respective conversations. Some movies are able to "hide" their narrative issues with overwhelming visuals, but this type of storytelling doesn't benefit that much from phenomenal technical aspects if the two pillars of any cinematographic work have serious flaws.

I'll get straight to the film's most divisive matter – related to the protagonist and the target audience. The Son depends tremendously on the perspective from which the audience looks at the story. Anyone who decides to examine the unfolding of the narrative exclusively through the eyes of Nicholas (Zen McGrath), the son of divorced parents with major mental health problems, may find it challenging to understand the purpose of the screenplay or the message Zeller wants to convey. There's no doubt: The Son is a thought-provoking, sad, depressing, frustrating movie with several triggering plot points that will inevitably leave many viewers uncomfortable or even inconsolable.

However, there's a big difference between what the audience would like the film to be about and what the filmmaker always had in mind. I don't consider the comment "the movie is about this, but it should be about that" fair criticism, and The Son seems to be suffering a lot from this reasoning. Indeed, some films deceive or confuse viewers with their own plot, either by regularly changing their central theme or by not making it clear who the protagonist is. Even so, many cases are similar to Zeller's latest flick. The Son never stops being a cautionary tale about and for (absent) parents, focusing primarily on Peter (Hugh Jackman).

Zeller's film delivers a critical message about the impact parents' actions – or lack thereof – have on their children. The Son depicts in a harsh, extremely shocking manner what can be the consequences of the lack of affection, attention, understanding, and presence in their children's lives, especially when they're going through a tough phase, be it something superficial like a very bad day at school or something heavier that involves deep emotional or any physical / mental health problems. The lack of impartiality and rationality with which many parents deal with their kids' issues creates blind spots, where the former are unable to observe in the latter what, from an external viewpoint, seems obvious (especially to viewers of this film).

On one hand, Peter is a father driven by professional ambition and, as such, his parental presence leaves much to be desired. On the other hand, his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) doesn't seem to have the capability to connect with her son, even feeling genuinely afraid to live with him. In the midst of it all, Peter's new girlfriend and mother, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), tries to adapt to the constant changes in her life, but she's also the only one able to look at Nicholas and realize something isn't right. She's seems to be the only person with enough emotional detachment to analyze the situation fairly and recognize that special care is needed. And this is where Zeller's fascinating dialogue and interactions come in.

Jackman and Kirby offer superb performances, while Dern and McGrath are a couple of levels below - some passionate line deliveries sound forced, curiously more on the part of the actress whose tone of voice, at times, seems too sappy, almost as if she's being sarcastic. Regardless of these minor inconsistencies, the cast works brilliantly together, creating a truly tense atmosphere during every conversation. However, Jackman deserves the whole spotlight. I'm uncertain whether this is the best performance of his career, but he hasn't been this good since Prisoners – putting aside his Wolverine adventures.

The talented actor carries all his sequences throughout the entirety of The Son, which mostly consists of scenes featuring Peter with him. Along with the events of the unforgettably traumatic third act, Jackman is one of many emotional triggers that will make the vast majority of viewers shed more than just a couple of tears. Once again, I emphasize that the film is, in fact, a cautionary tale focused on parents and the unfitting treatment of their children, something that could gradually lead to more severe results. Zeller should have approached the topic of mental health in a more educational, modern way since Nicholas' arc not only adds nothing to the discussion but can inadvertently reinstate preconceptions about this type of illness.

To conclude, it's necessary to also give an honorable mention to Hans Zimmer's score. More subtle than usual but with the same powerful impact in the most sensitive moments. Also, Anthony Hopkins deserves much praise, despite having just a little more screen time than a cameo. Bearing in mind the importance of the character – Peter's father – and how much he impacts his son's personality, the only scene in which he's present doesn't seem sufficient. There was room to deepen this relationship, as well as with Nicholas.

Final Thoughts

The Son is an emotionally devastating film with a shocking yet important cautionary message for all parents. A gradually sadder, depressing, frustrating story that grips the audience through its tension-filled dialogue, but the lack of something new and impactful directly about those primarily affected by mental health issues could be an uncomfortable trigger for many viewers. Hugh Jackman stands out the most with one of the best performances of his career in a genuinely powerful, tear-inducing display. It may receive an understandably divisive reception, but I definitely consider it a must-watch flick.

Manuel's London Rating: B+

Follow Manuel on Twitter - @msbreviews / Or Letterboxd - @msbreviews

[jo]

From an interview with Florian Zeller --


This is the gist of what every moviegoer to this film should realize -- to adopt the right perspective in viewing it!

FZ: Yeah, you’re right. I mean it was a way also to be as close as possible to the actors and to the characters. There is a lot of conversation in that film that’s true. It’s not because it comes from theater also. I really wanted to keep, there is a lot of words, a lot of sentence and still we don’t say what needs to be said. I only wanted to highlight the fact that they are not capable to face the real conversation by talking too much somehow. I thought that it would be even more clear, even clearer, sorry if it was in everyday lives space, kind of small, but it was not about creating something claustrophobic or something that it was in The Father.

Because again, I was not trying to tell the story from the son’s perspective. It could have been another film, it could have been a bit like The Father, and I could have done that, and I would’ve loved to do that, meaning to try to experience from the inside, what it could mean to feel this kind of anxiety and suicidal thoughts and to use the cinema as a way to reflect this internal experience. This is not what I was, somehow it would’ve looked a bit like The Father. I was tempted to do something like that because somehow this is the way I think. Also, I know it’s somehow more challenging. My intuition was to try to dare being as simple as possible.

Sometimes simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve in order to tell that story from Peter’s perspective, those who are around someone who’s suffering, and they don’t know how to deal with that.

He’s trying hard to help his son. He is a loving father. He wants to open a door, but he doesn’t have the keys. This is the feeling and the frustration I wanted the audience to feel.

Sometimes love is not enough. You can have the best intentions. Sometimes it’s not enough when you’re not capable just to face the right questions. This is what happens with this character who is in a way completely blind and he’s blind because he feels guilty, because he thinks that everything is his fault, and he wants to repair what he thinks he has destroyed.

What we have to learn, I think, is that there is no simple explanation. No responsibility, so no guilt and nothing good could come from guilt. There is no explanation. Of course, some traumas we know that could lead to mental health issues, but most of the people, you don’t have a simple explanation. Of course, there is psychological layers but also biological layers or chemical layers. It means that we have to accept not to see this reality like is it the result of what I did wrong? It’s a major shift I think we have to do in our way to see mental illness. The same it would be completely pointless to blame someone for having a heart issue or a stomach issue. I think we should be the same for someone who is suffering from struggling with pain, with mental illness issues. We all know people that on paper they have everything in life to be happy and still they are in pain. There is no responsibility.

This character is completely missing the point because he doesn’t know that there is no explanation. He thinks everything is his fault in a way.

This is what should be publicized, shared with the movie audiences who did not fully appreciate the film's intention, with the critics who misunderstood the cinematic vision!

It is all about the one person whose reactions and actions define what many will do or not do and feel or not feel when confronted with a family member suffering from a mental health issue ( whether psychological or biological(genes) or chemical (brain cells gone awry).

JO

[jo]

www.thefilmagazine.com/the-son-2022-review/

Excerpts --

An impassioned Hugh Jackman does his level best with such a superficial script, which comes as no surprise considering the Australian actively campaigned for his role after being so moved by The Father. Vanessa Kirby also warrants a special mention, giving her all in spite of the limited screen time she is afforded. Unfortunately, little can be said for the rest of the cast – too often, Laura Dern feels as if she’s just going through the motions, while Anthony Hopkins’ bit-part cameo as Peter’s father only really serves as a heavy-handed reminder that Peter himself is the true centrepiece at the heart of The Son. It’s because of this that Zen McGrath is so restricted in his performance, unable to truly delve into Nicholas’ character, which acts only as a plot device to examine Peter’s character more deeply.

This review gave the movie a 1 of 4 rating. If you read it ( I think it is from Scotland), there is again the petulance of some critics/moviegoers to want to see another kind of movie. Yet in his conclusion, he says the movie seems to be a movie whose central character is really Peter. Why not? Does he want that because it is entitled The Son, that everything should revolve around Nicholas? It seems to me that this where there is such negativity towards the movie - most want the movie to focus centrally on Nicholas. On the other hand, Zeller has given a subtle main course of focusing on Peter, the son of a cruel father while being the father of a son suffering from his own issues. Isn't that a remarkable way of telling a story?

Jo

[jo]

At the same time, we see this opinion from another critic --

[jo]

The Sins of the Father Are Passed Down in Florian Zeller’s ‘The Son’
Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern Enter the 2023 Oscar Race

by Mark Johnson November 13, 2022 in featured, Film Criticsim, Reviews 0

The Sins of the Father Are Passed Down in Florian Zeller’s ‘The Son’


“It is unfortunate that in most cases when the sins of the father fall on the son it is because unlike God, people refuse to forgive and forget and heap past wrongs upon innocent generations.” – E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

Florian Zeller’s first feature film, The Father, was met with rapturous reviews and ended up being nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Along with bringing Anthony Hopkins his second acting Oscar, Zeller won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Christopher Hampton). His sophomore effort, The Son, has not been met with quite the same enthusiasm, scoring a lowly 46% on Rotten Tomatoes through its first 35 reviews. Both films were adapted from stage plays written by Zeller, and deliver weighty, career-defining performances from his cast. So, what is The Son lacking that made The Father so successful?

Nicholas Miller (Zen McGrath) is a disgruntled and troubled teen who is growing up in a broken home and succumbing to depression. His mother, Kate (Laura Dern), struggles to connect with him and when she discovers he has been skipping school, Nicholas is sent to live with his father, Peter (Hugh Jackman). Peter accepts Nicholas into his home alongside his new partner, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), and their infant son. Peter makes every attempt to care for Nicholas the way he wished his father would have cared for him, but his career and new family make things challenging as he tries to create a welcome space for his firstborn.

It might be assumed that McGrath’s Nicholas is the titular character, but there is more than one son at play here. Jackman’s Peter is stretched too thinly across all those who depend on him, and his own father – played wonderfully by Anthony Hopkins – was absent for most of his life. Despite Peter having every intention of being a better parent than the one he received, he finds himself headed down familiar territory and following the same patterns as his predecessor. Thus, the sins of the father are passed down to the son.

There are themes in The Son that are consistent with those in The Father – abandonment, family, people who are ill-equipped to handle demanding situations with loved ones – along with a few twists and turns that allow us to examine the what-could-have-been that comes at the end of the road not taken. The performances by Jackman and Dern are extraordinary, and if she hadn’t previously won the Oscar for Marriage Story, I would imagine she’d be more in play here. It might be the best performance of her career.

The film’s biggest detractor is, surprisingly, the script. The Son is a tad too melodramatic and conventional, and thus has a less staggering impact than Zeller’s first film. While The Father leaned on an intelligent audience, Zeller reversed course this go around and instead felt the need to spoon-feed his message in a way that numbs the story. We see all the signs unfolding while the characters miss them haphazardly.

Although this is a tad disappointing conclusion for such a highly anticipated film, I will say that as a father to two coming-of-age boys, I found a good deal to connect with in this movie. The incertitude that comes with being a father often overshadows the weight of disillusionment bequeathed upon our sons. When the story focuses here, you can see how the play would have been so successful. There is a qualified and substantial message in Zeller’s social commentary that might have resonated more fully if it weren’t so straightforward.

[hughmanity]

I have been disappointed by some of the very negative (a few I would even call harsh) reviews I have been reading about the film.  I don't know who this person is, but here is one that views THE SON in an extremely positive light, so wanted to share.  Also, while most reviews do point out Hugh's strong performance, this one goes on at some length.

film-book.com/film-review-the-son-2022-hugh-jackman-delivers-the-performance-of-his-career-in-a-heart-wrenching-drama/

[jo]

Thanks for sharing the above review.

Again, it seems that those which carry negative reviews wanted to see something else - not what Zeller’s intended cinematic vision & focus.

Even the ending was not viewed in its intended highly emotional direction.

I don.t appreciate why the expectations became different when the play itself which was staged in London a few years ago had that same highly charged denouement!!

Jo

[jo]

From Rex Reed of THE OBSERVER,

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‘The Son’: A Stellar Hugh Jackman Makes This Engrossing But Downbeat Movie Worth It
A family copes with painful issues of mental illness, divorce, and worse, but detailed performances from Jackman and Laura Dern achieve a balance that is rewarding.
By Rex Reed • 12/02/22 7:59am




Hugh Jackman as Peter in ‘The Son.’ Rekha Garton
The third and final entry in French writer-director Florian Zeller’s acclaimed trilogy of plays about conflicted family values in perpetual crisis, The Son is a bold, harrowing and unflinchingly sobering film that is admittedly not for every taste, but an unavoidably intelligent piece of filmmaking for mature viewers that I highly recommend.

THE SON ★★★ (3/4 stars)
Directed by: Florian Zeller
Written by: Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins
Running time: 123 mins.

Its predecessor, The Father, won an Academy Award for Anthony Hopkins, who returns in a much smaller role cut from the same bolt of rough fabric, again playing the hard-boiled family patriarch he’s patented on film, but this time he’s just another perfect cog in a balanced wheel of fraught domestic dynamics headlined by the great team of Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern. For one of the most dazzling and versatile musical dynamos on the stage since Al Jolson, Mr. Jackman, currently starring on Broadway in the smash hit revival of The Music Man, has been deified as a cross between Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, but on film he’s appeared in so many fiascos that it is a genuine pleasure to finally watch him soar dramatically in a serious movie that showcases him at the top of his range and power. The Son is not a flawless masterpiece either, but it is worth a visit for many reasons, not the least of which is a rare chance to see this dynamic performer in the peak of his career as Peter, a successful New York lawyer who has survived a painful divorce to re-discover domestic bliss with his warm, vibrant new wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby) and their first baby.


But the euphoria crumbles with an urgent distress signal from Peter’s distraught ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) who is worried about their teenage son Nicholas (Zen McGrath). To Kate’s dismay, Nicholas hasn’t been to school for months and has exhibited alarming signs of mental problems so deep that he can no longer cope. Peter disrupts his newfound happiness to tackle the crisis and finds the son he’s neglected is in worse shape than anyone imagined. Nicholas, on the verge of taking his SATs to prepare his way to college, radiates so much sadness and depression that he’s on the verge of being expelled. Worse, he reveals the cuts and gashes of self-inflicted wounds and suicidal desires to end a life of misery.

Peter and Beth, working hard to make their relatively fresh marriage splinter-free, find themselves submerged in the complexity of relationships Peter thought he had left behind. Taking in the desperate Nicholas to live with them, he is grateful that Beth is coping so well with all of his enigmas, but gratitude is not what a woman, wife and new mother wants. Beth has problems of her own, and so does Kate, who bears the scars of betrayal and desertion Peter inflicted when he left her. Co-authored by director Zeller and the distinguished (and more experienced) screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Atonement, Dangerous Liasons), The Son explores every angle of mental despair with heart-rending compassion and insight, painfully probing contemporary issues of divorce, suicide, bipolar withdrawal from society, and worse.

The film’s theatrical roots are evident in its structure, character development and dramatic plot shifts, but the total realism on display in all of the detailed performances achieve a balance that is emotionally engrossing. For what many will dismiss as a soap opera on a grand scale, The Son has nuances that are constantly evolving. Especially in the hypnotic scenes of interpolative authority and eloquence on display in Hugh Jackman’s centerpiece performance.[ The problem for me is that the movie is so relentlessly downbeat that it’s hard to find a single smile, much less a laugh, to ease the tension. I’m not sure the holiday season is the right time to release a film this gloomy. I admired The Son for many reasons, but I did not go away feeling much Christmas cheer.

[jo]

From a female film critic from Atlanta - an honest and careful critique of what this family drama brings to its audiences!

COLUMNS ELEANOR RINGEL CATER
‘The Son’ – a movie about family dysfunction ‘done right’
Eleanor Ringel December 12, 2022 2:33 pm

A scene from "The Son"


By Eleanor Ringel Cater

Perhaps not the sins, but certainly the shortcomings of the fathers are visited where you might expect in “The Son,” a sharply-observed, smartly-acted follow-up of sorts to “The Father” which recently won Anthony Hopkins his second Oscar.

Also written and directed by Florian Zeller, “The Son” stars Hugh Jackman as Peter Miller, a man who seemingly has everything going for him. A prominent New York attorney on the cusp of a long-dreamed-of political career, with a vivacious and loving second wife, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), and a brand-new baby, Peter’s paradise is lost when his ex, Kate (Laura Dern), calls with disturbing news. Their teenage son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) hasn’t been to school in months.


Movie poster for “The Son”

Distraught, she begs her ex to take over the care and feeding of their vulnerable, unhappy child. Still guilt-ridden and, on some level, hoping to be helpful, Peter agrees. This puts a considerable strain on his still-fresh second marriage as well as his career ambitions.

This isn’t another study of a drug-addicted kid and his desperate parents. Nicholas’ pain goes much deeper, seemingly embedded in his DNA and exacerbated by the break-up of his family. He’s the sort whose very presence brings with it an unsettling melancholia. That “not waving but drowning” aura poet Stevie Smith wrote about.

Kate already knows she’s out of her depth. And Beth, quite rightly, fears the implied threat of destruction Nicholas carries with him. In one of the film’s most disturbing scenes, the boy offers to babysit when their regular sitter cancels at the last moment. Peter wants to show his son that he trusts him, yet instinctually sides with Beth’s understandable fear that leaving an infant with Nicholas is about as safe as leaving him with a homicidal maniac.

Hopkins has a brief cameo to remind us of the difficult upbringing Peter endured. But the film is less interested in laying blame than in laying out for us the seemingly insurmountable odds that attend unhappy children and their helpless parents. Everyone wants to do the right thing, but just what that is – and what the consequences might be – haunts every encounter.

“The Son” is not a brilliantly made picture, especially not compared to its predecessor, which so cannily captured the disorientation of encroaching dementia. It’s a much more straightforward piece and as such, may disappoint the more cinematically minded. Still, it’s an honest movie, a well-made movie, that understands pain and isn’t afraid to show it in an understated but insistent way.


A scene from “The Son”

Dern, Kirby and McGrath turn their secondary roles into expertly-shaped portrayals, full of observation and support. But Jackman, whose meteoric stardom as a Marvel superhero has seemingly eclipsed his versatility as a dramatic actor, holds it all together with a performance that showcases his sensitivity, his explosiveness and even his comedic chops.

The movie’s gut-punch finale may be something you saw coming, but that doesn’t necessarily dilute its power. “The Son” is family dysfunction done right, a piece that understands that collateral damage is, nonetheless, still damage and moving on doesn’t always mean leaving pain behind.

This seems like a good and honest appreciation of the cinematic vision and focus. The critic saw the bigger picture and appreciated the movie as one honestly portraying family dysfunction.

The film critic has done critiques for about 30 years, hence her knowledge of how film can deliver a message, with the right touch. She was also a candidate for a Pulitzer Prize for her work in some category.


Jo

[mamaleh]

Now that is a great review –- not just because she praises Hugh and the film but because she appraises it honestly for what it is. It doesn't have to have gimmicks or "brilliant" filmmaking tricks to distinguish it. It's an honest look at the family's pain and should be appreciated and understood on that basis and not be compared to Zeller's more stylized first film.

Ellen

[jo]

Maybe promotional campaigns of serious movies should be better directed to what the cinematic intent is. Oftentimes, the marketing people simply makes general statements that leaves interpretation of film messages subject to too much conjecture. These days, film audiences will be more direct in stating what they want to see from the film, which could sometimes be inconsistent with the film's intention.

In a way, it is distressing that so many critiques of the movie missed the point... many wanting more of a medical procedural ( How does one become mentally ill? What should be done to cure the person of such ill health?) - when the movie is more of how this critic described it -- "family dysfunction done right". There is also much to learn from understanding how that happens in the lives of those living with someone with mental health issues.

Jo

[jo]

From the Associated Press ( featured in the Official website of "SONY PICTURES CLASSICS : THE SON"

Sony Pictures

The Son
OPENS NATIONWIDE JANUARY 20

DIRECTED BY:
Florian Zeller

WRITTEN BY:
Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton

STARRING:
Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, and Anthony Hopkins

SYNOPSIS:
A cautionary tale that follows a family as it struggles to reunite after falling apart. THE SON centers on Peter (Hugh Jackman), whose hectic life with his infant and new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) is upended when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) appears at his door to discuss their son Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who is now a teenager. The young man has been missing school for months and is deeply troubled. Peter strives to take care of Nicholas as he would have wanted his own father (Anthony Hopkins) to have taken care of him while juggling his and Beth's new son, and at work an offer of a dream position in Washington. However, by reaching for the past to correct its mistakes, he loses sight of how to hold onto Nicholas in the present.




“REVIEW: WRENCHING AND RIVETING, 'THE SON' LEAVES YOU SHAKEN”
Mark Kennedy / Associated Press / November 22, 2022


If you don't have children, you will likely walk out of “The Son” shaken and deeply moved. If you do have kids, you may have to be eventually pulled to your feet after collapsing into a fetal ball for several hours.

Writer-director Florian Zeller's second installment in his trilogy examining mental health is an emotional wrecking ball almost exquisite in its destructive power. If his previous film, “The Father,” needed a trigger warning about dementia, “The Son” needs one for depression and suicide.

Despite the title, “The Son” is really about the father in this story, Peter, a successful workaholic Manhattan lawyer on his second wife and second child, a newborn. Past and present collide when Nicholas, the 17-year-old son from his first marriage, reaches a crescendo of mental anguish.

“It's life. It's weighing me down. I want something to change, but I don't know what,” he cries. “I feel like my head's exploding.”

But neither dad – Hugh Jackman, in easily his finest work onscreen – nor mom, Laura Dern in another heart-led performance, can seem to help. Zen McGrath plays the son with stunning agony, his hooded eyes flickering as if he's being hunted.

Zeller, adapting his play for the screen together again with translator and co-screenwriter Christopher Hampton, grounds everything in an unblinking realism, letting the words carry and avoiding any visual tricks, except for a shaky camera when it focuses on Nicholas.

One quiet symbol that recurs is of Peter shown often at an elevator bank, his vertical world going up and down. But at his home, the filmmakers show a constant churning washing machine – lines versus circles.

None of the parents in this high-class world – including stepmom Beth played by Vanessa Kirby – seem to know how to help this young man stuck in a domestic no man's land or even how to speak to him.

Jackman's Peter addresses his son as if he were in a sales meeting (“Soon everything will go back to normal”) and even offers him a fist-bump. He and his mom have a chopped shorthand, with fractured dialogue. (“Call me,” “Don't...” and “Don't cry, my little sunbeam.”)

Restless and in mental pain, the son goes from one parent's home to another, skipping school and just wandering the city. “What's going to become of you?” his dad demands, confusing the byproduct for the root issue.

In one heartbreaking scene, dad, stepmom and son dance in their living room to Tom Jones' “It's Not Unusual” and the camera soon closes in on the adults blissfully smiling as they let loose, unaware that the son long ago dropped out.

The son's anger at his father for leaving his mother buries the film in guilt that eats away at the dad, who starts to drift off in meetings. He then has a wonderfully tense visit with his own father (Anthony Hopkins, though not playing his same role in “The Father.”) Peter tells him he may turn down a job to care for his son, which his father sees as a dig at his own absentee parenting. “What do you want, applause?” sneers the father. “Get over it.”

All the while, Nicholas is calling out for help. “I'm not well, mom,” “I'm not made like other people” and “I don't think I'm ever going to measure up.” He's cutting himself and has no friends. Viewers will be unable to shake a rising sense of dread, that the son needs something that his parents cannot give him. That love is not enough, as a psychiatrist says.

[jo]

Tarek Fayoumi
Tarek Fayoumi
Dec 29

·

The Son Review

Depression is a normal human emotion. Some people struggle with depression and others are better able to handle it. Director Florian Zeller puts us in a world of depression in The Son which is an honest and faithful film that is about a teenage boy’s emotional distress. The filmis realistic in its portrayal of life as it authentically illustrates how feeling down can be a challenge to accept. The melancholy is highly saturated throughout the story.

I had difficulty with The Son at various times. The concepts of sadness and anxiety were the two factors that made me feel especially emotional. The Son reminded me of what it can feel like to be down about aspects of life. Given all the downer moments in the film, I wasalso reminded of how important getting help is. It is clear, however, that the ones we love most may have to make tough decisions sometimes and those who are suffering may take offense to those decisions. By making these difficult decisions, the hope is to help the people we love ultimately live a better life.

In The Son, audiences are introduced to Nicholas (played by Zen McGrath). He is a teenage boy with divorced parents in New York City. He ditches school and begins to show signs that concern his mother Kate (played by Laura Dern). Nicholas then begs to stay with his father Peter (played by Hugh Jackman). Peter is remarried, and his new wife is Beth (played by Vanessa Kirby). Nicholas changes schools, and his dad tries to help him out. Nicholas acts like he is improving, but he is not well and hides his emotions. Peter and Kate do not know how to help their son. Even Peter’s father (played by Anthony Hopkins) does not know how to give Peter advice. Unfortunately, Peter’s father is self-absorbed and fails to admit to his own mistakes during Peter’s childhood. With all the tensions, frustrations, and worrisome factors, The Son is psychologically disturbing. The level of Nicholas’ sadness causes confusion and many questions for Kate, Peter, and Beth.

The Son paints a vivid portrait of mental health challenges and displays Zeller’s vision of realism as a director. Zeller knows how to grease the wheel of stress and apprehension in The Son. In a few fragments, Nicholas is shown in an average mood. There are moments where it seems he has more confidence in himself, and his father becomes immediately impressed. The essential ingredients to Nicholas’ mental health tend to come to a halt due to shocking discoveries by his parents. These scenes are portrayed with honesty and are familiar to those familiar with depression. People who fight depression tend to keep covering their tracks and hiding their real problems. Can Nicholas stop lying to himself?

The Son left me with mixed emotions. I liked it for its realism, but its focus on mental health was hard for me to handle. Nicholas’ parents simply want their son to be happy. Despite how concerning Nicholas’s feelings may appear, tough love may have to come into play to help him recover.

The film left me quite down, but it reinforced the importance of my life. It reminded me of who has helped me to get my life back on track when I’ve faced troubles. It also reminded me of the fundamentals of family. In the end, it is all about what people can do to help those they care about pick themselves up. Three stars for The Son.

Originally published at movieswithtarek.com on December 28, 2022.

[jo]

This is very funny... but almost ironic.

The reviewer puts down THE SON as best as he could in his review --

news.yahoo.com/hugh-jackman-godawful-son-ends-031616146.html

But if you read the kilometric responses -- it is the reviewer who is totally castigated for wishing for a perfect solution and not realizing that in real life, this is likely what is happening with parents confronted with the mental health issue of a son. The people who commented said that the reviewer only wanted a fairy tale story... and not the realities of life!

The 1st 2 comments --

Tom
27 November, 2022

I try to avoid commenting on films I haven’t seen, so I’ll comment on the article, rather than trying to defend the film. It sounds to me like every issue the author has with it - the mistreatment of a person with mental health issues, the focus on the parents’ self-centeredness, the depressing plot twists - might actually be really true to life, a window into why mental health issues are commonly swept under the rug until it’s too late.


74 Likes

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TKC
27 November, 2022

I was thinking the same thing. This description is sadly quite honest about what goes on in these situations. I don't know if the reviewer has experienced anything like this but it all rings unfortunately true.


11 Likes

Btw, someone wrote that Hugh Jackman only makes lousy movies -- all the 28 responses disagreed and no one gave a vote agreeing with the statement. 


If you read the rest ( many, many comments) -- they basically say the same thing!

I wouldn't be surprised if many of the Rotten Tomatoes critics have the same mentality. It is not suprising that the major critics ( Variety/Playlist/etc) actually appreciated the film in the right light. The average rating on the more strict METACRITIC  (54%) is so much better than the RT average rating of 41%. Btw, the RT audience score is 73 %.


Jo.