The credentials for The Son are undeniably dazzling. The film’s predecessor 2020’s The Father won Oscars for its star Sir Anthony Hopkins and its writing team, Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, who also directed it.
The new film sees the return of all three, along with the stellar trio of Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby.
Photo: Screenshot
Like The Father, it’s based on a stage play, also written by Frenchman Florian Zeller.
It opens on new mother Beth crooning to her baby boy. Her husband Peter watches fondly, and then there’s a knock at the door. It’s Peter’s ex, Kate, with bad news.
After their messy divorce, Kate has been bringing up teenager Nicholas. And like so many young men these days, he’s got issues. He’s not coping, he’s starting to scare Kate.
Peter feels torn as his old family encroaches on his new one, but he agrees to sort it out for Kate.
And here’s where it starts to unravel. Peter has been priding himself on being a good father – even if he’s not always around. He’s a busy lawyer, after all.
He sweeps in though and offers an elegant solution. Nicholas can move in with him, Beth and the baby. He’ll go to a new school, job done.
Kate is relieved, new wife Beth is less confident. She barely knows Nicholas, who’s shown no interest in getting any closer to her.
And once Peter starts trying to get to the bottom of what’s bothering Nicholas, it’s plain that easy answers are not going to work here.
Nicholas is played by young Australian actor Zen McGrath in his first major role. He’s all too convincing - initially monosyllabic, then demanding, and laying the blame on his increasingly desperate parents.
Anyone who’s ever had a teenage boy – or been a teenager – will recognize Nicholas instantly.
Where The Father explored dementia, a common problem with our increasingly aging population, The Son is the nightmare of parents facing a range of mental illnesses that their own parents either didn’t know, or refused to accept.
That was certainly the case with Peter’s own father – a small but terrifying role for Anthony Hopkins.
Peter is clearly trying to avoid ending up like his cold and distant father. But parenting is hard – and with each false step, he feels he’s letting everyone down – his son and his two wives.
For all the fact that Jackman and young McGrath have the lion’s share of the dialogue, we find ourselves looking through the eyes of Kate and Beth.
Laura Dern as Kate – unable to face a problem she’s unqualified for – continually looks back on an idealized past, a neverland of happy families.
Meanwhile Beth – a brilliantly watchful performance by Vanessa Kirby - knows how unhappy Peter was back then. And she also sees him making the same mistakes with his new family that he did with his old one.
The Son doesn’t have the acting pyrotechnics that Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins brought to The Father. And after a while the central dilemma – and Nicholas’s refusal to face up to it – starts to grind us down as much as it does the struggling parents.
Like The Father, The Son offers a clever, theatrical ending. But this time - despite the talent on both sides of the camera - it doesn’t quite feel enough.
