Does the ‘The Son’ meet the cinematic achievements of its critically acclaimed predecessor?
The film, starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Anthony Hopkins tells the story of a teenage boy, played by Zen McGrath, who suffers from depression, and how his parents choose to address it - or not.
‘The Son’
In 2020, writer-director Florian Zeller’s critically acclaimed The Father earned Oscars for star Anthony Hopkins and screenwriters Zeller and Christopher Hampton. This week, Zeller and Hampton return with The Son, starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, and Hopkins, again, but in a different role. The families are different, but the films are related. The Father dealt with a stubborn, older man pushing away his daughter as he battled dementia; The Son is about a teenage boy battling depression, and how his parents choose to address it — or not.
In this story, the son (McGrath) complains that he can’t live up to the expectations of his father (Jackman). It’s fitting. The Son does not live up to the expectations of The Father.
The cause of the son’s overwhelming inability to cope is never explained (his illness goes well beyond feelings of loss from his parents’ divorce, or dad’s pressure on him to get his act together), but that is the way depression often manifests. It’s insidious, an emptiness inside you that goes beyond the basic emotions of anger, sadness, frustration, etc. So while the depiction of teenage depression is legitimate, the way Jackman and his ex-wife (Dern) respond to it seem from another decade.
These are wealthy, educated, big-city professionals with a son in a prestigious private school. That a prep school junior could not show up to class for a month and the parents are never called in is absurd. That a teenager of this generation could tell his father he has no friends and is “not well,” and the father could still think the boy is doing better and snapping out of it, is not based on the reality of prep school parents today, where they are dealing with gender issues, opioid addiction, and a host of mental challenges. When Jackman snaps at his partner (Kirby) for not allowing the teen to watch their infant so they can enjoy a dinner out, what planet is he on? Granted, the boy’s not Chucky, but he’s not someone you want as a babysitter.
We’re supposed to believe that Jackman is oblivious to his son’s suffering because he was raised by a callous, uncaring dad (Hopkins) or he’s refusing to see how troubled the boy is because he’s trying to convince himself he’s a much better father than his own.
Well, if your child is begging for help, help him. It’s not about you.
The acting in The Son is solid and there are scenes that work, but there’s that one cringe-worthy dance sequence that belongs in a rom-com. Anything more upbeat than a funeral dirge is out of place in such a misery-saturated family drama. (Rated PG-13. Premieres Friday, Jan. 20, in theaters.)
‘Missing’
There have been countless movies about a parent searching for a missing child. Here, a daughter (Storm Reid) uses all her tech skills to search for her missing mother (Nia Long) on vacation in Colombia. But does she really want to learn what’s going on? Written and directed by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick. (Rated PG-13. Premieres Friday, Jan. 20, in theaters.)
‘Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb’
Documentary about the 50-year-relationship between journalist-author-historian and LBJ biographer Robert Caro and his editor, Robert Gottlieb. An interesting look at two accomplished, opinionated, hardworking men, and the writing of books. Directed by Lizzie Gottlieb, Robert’s daughter. (Rated PG. Premieres Friday, Jan. 20, at the PFS Bourse.)