“The Son” Film Review 2023 -My Thoughts 💭

Please note: this review contains some spoilers, as well as references to mental health issues, self harm etc.

~

This emotionally manipulative and derivative slice of familial disharmony and mental illness must be one of the worse films I’ve seen in two years. “The Son” chronicles teenager Nicholas (Zen McGrath) who battles with depression as he decides to move to his father’s apartment in NYC (his parents are separated) as he fears he needs a change and is too much for his mother Kate (Laura Dern). His father Peter (Hugh Jackman) now lives with his new wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby) with whom he has had a newborn.

Upon arriving, his father gains a sense of how troubled his son is - finding out he self harms, won’t socialise and has been avoiding school long term. Nicholas’ poor mental health seems to stem from the fact that his father left his mother which he can’t quite get past, yet this just seems like a knee jerk reaction rather than the real causes of his woes (which we never get to find out).

“The Son” is plodding, repetitive and few opportunities are provided for audiences that ring true to life, instead dispensing any kind of realism in the script - and to an extent the performances as well. The film’s depiction of mental illness is simply not nuanced enough and I believe its examination falls into cliché. It felt at times like a TV Movie instead of exploring these themes to more interesting and powerful effect for cinema. The film also contains actress Laura Dern in a supporting role (one of my favourite actresses) but severely under-utilised, much like Vanessa Kirby. These two actresses could bring the house down if they wanted, yet both are given barely anything interesting to do but look worried. Instead much of the script centres around the the father and the son and I just didn’t feel the strain of this prominent relationship. Is it the adapted script from the play (also written by Florian Zeller) or are the actors miscast? I’m not certain, I only know with actors and actresses of this calibre the film should have been more realistic, more moving and alive. I’ve not see “The Father” (also by the same director who is French). Perhaps something was lost in translation to the screen this time, as the “The Father” was generally more critically acclaimed.

At the end of the day, “The Son” leaves you feeling cheated and worn out, rather than moved or enlightened. The director also seems to manipulate audiences by including multiple scenes that are framed to appear ominous, such as a door slamming, an ambiguous phone call, a washing machine going around and around that suddenly stops. Viewers are positioned to be expecting the young lad to have either attempted suicide or committed it, yet each time the result is not as deathly as the misdirection of the mise en scène, and soundtrack initially appeared.

The writing is not grounded in enough reality, but instead provides a heightened, almost old-fashioned tale of a depressed, suicidal son than one living in 2022! Hospital staff do not ring true (wear a name badge if you are the hospital’s head psychiatrist please) and the same sequence of someone mentally ill being carried out virtually kicking and screaming by hospital staff was too cliché to bear. This might have worked in a ‘throwback thriller’, but this is simply abysmal screenwriting in a contemporary drama.

There is one small scene where Jackman’s character Peter and his son Nicholas are on the couch in his apartment watching TV. A scene where the camera appears to have captured something authentic. Maybe Jackman was told to throw the pretzels (or whatever they were) in the air and catch these in his mouth, but what follows appears to be improvised and a real reaction from actor Zen McGrath followed by further real reactions by the two performers which is both warm and comical. Sadly, the film doesn’t showcase more of this authenticity throughout.

Overall, I can only give “The Son” ⭐️ out of five

* Thanks for checking out my film review. I am a massive film buff, so if you are too please subscribe for more. If you liked it, please let me know by hitting the heart and providing some feedback if you wish. Many thanks.

You can also check out my film review of “Licorice Pizza” here: