THE SON movie review

THE SON is directed by Florian Zeller; it’s based on his play of the same name. The movie stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Hugh Quarshie, and Anthony Hopkins.

Nicholas’ parents Peter and Kate divorced years ago; Peter has since remarried and has a baby with his new wife, Beth. Peter’s law career constantly interferes with his family life, and when Nicholas falls into a depression, he comes to live with Peter and Beth, in an attempt to find himself. Will Peter, who had a strained relationship with his own father, be able to help his son get back on track?

Movies about depression and how it impacts a family are nothing new; the gold standard for this remains 1980’s Robert Redford-directed drama, ORDINARY PEOPLE. The ambiguously-titled THE SON brings together a fantastic cast and shows great promise. Despite great performance from its leads, particularly Jackman, the movie ultimately falls flat by failing to make its subject interesting, and a few other puzzling decisions.

Where I will praise THE SON is the performances of its central actors. It’s criminal that Hugh Jackman is primarily only known to mainstream audiences for his portrayal of Wolverine in the X-MEN movies; this guy certainly has a strong dramatic range which he thankfully gets to show off here. The women in his life, portrayed by Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby, respectively, have believable and solid interactions with everyone they meet. The casting couldn’t have been done better.

It’s also a beautifully shot film despite its rather mundane and domestic premise. The film is set primarily in New York City, because, well, every movie is. Much of the film takes on a drab and grayish color scheme, but flashbacks to happier and more optimistic times are presented in much more vibrant and colorful fashion; this juxtaposition is one of the greatest strengths the movie has.

But the film has as many problems as it does strengths. The biggest issue is that Nicholas is a completely unsympathetic character. This is a young man who complains about his life and makes no apparent efforts to better himself. Moments that might hint at some decent character development tend not to go anywhere. This makes the experience far less interesting than it should be.

The film also completely wastes Anthony Hopkins as Peter’s estranged father. He’s in literally one scene of the film, but this raises more questions than answers for the audience and is a subplot without closure. Apparently, this is the same character played by Hopkins in another Zeller film, THE FATHER, though one really needs to wonder if this side story/character was really necessary in what’s already a very full film.

The movie also utilizes an “unreliable narrator” gimmick in a pivotal moment of the film that feels like it would be more at home in JOKER than this film. Going into further detail here would be spoiler territory, but this sequence felt manipulative and out of place, and it goes against the tone of the rest of the movie.

THE SON had potential and a great cast, but squanders it with an unsympathetic youth lead and its inconsistencies. Jackman’s performance is one of the best of his career, and you’ll wish it was in a better movie. Moderately recommended.