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Movie Review: The Son

Mike Tyrkus
Hugh Jackman and Zen McGrath in "The Son"

Hugh Jackman and Zen McGrath in "The Son."

Although Florian Zeller’s film, The Son, may not play as well to some as the director’s 2020 piece, The Father, there is still an element of emptiness and sadness that echoes throughout the new film that resonates due to a well-managed performance from Hugh Jackman.

The film, a cautionary tale of sorts, that follows Peter (Jackman) as he struggles to find a balance within the new life he enjoys with his partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) and their infant son when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) comes calling asking for assistance dealing with their teenage son Nicholas (Zen McGrath). Nicholas has apparently been missing quite a bit of school and is now showing signs of being deeply troubled. It is decided that Nicholas will move in with Peter and Beth to curb his destructive behavior. Unfortunately, it appears that the problems Nicholas and Peter share are far more deeply rooted than can be simply worked out during a few therapy sessions. What follows then is the tale of the disintegration of a family and the devastation that it causes among all of those involved.

While director Zeller again works with The Father co-writer Christopher Hampton here, The Son feels a bit more uneven than its predecessor in some ways. There is a melodramatic arc that bookends the film that one may either feel works to the film’s benefit or decidedly to its detriment. That position will determine whether one’s opinion of the film is a positive or a negative one. To put it simply, this is a tale of sadness and loss and there is very little redemption for any of the characters existing within. In fact, one may wonder whether the over-the-top denouement is a bit too much.

Jackman is quite effective as a failed father and husband who is unable to piece together his own culpability in his son’s current state of mind until it is far too late for it to make any difference. Similarly, McGrath manages to imbue Nicholas with just enough sympathy that he becomes a victim rather than an antagonist and that works to the film’s benefit.

Although The Son may not prove as powerful to most as the director’s earlier offering, The Father, it is nevertheless buoyed by an effective turn from Hugh Jackman as a father who, in echoing the failures of his own father, has effectively doomed his own son to the same fate.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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