The Son: Complex Father-Son Drama a Mixed Bag That Tries Hard but Stalls

By Karen Gordon

Rating: C

The broad strokes of The Son are familiar movie territory: divorced parents dealing with a teen who is spiralling, trying to understand what’s happening to their child and how they can help him or her through a rough period, which in turn affects the family.

Writer-director Florian Zeller is aiming to go deeper here, and brings a lot of emotional and psychological complexity to the story. The film has depth and sincerity. Despite that and the excellent work of its cast —led by Hugh Jackman in a fine performance — the film stalls and falters midway through.

Jackman plays Peter, a successful lawyer on the cusp of moving into a desired job in the political arena. He’s married to Beth (Vanessa Kirby), who is home taking care of their infant son, Theo. In the first few minutes of the film, we get the sense that it’s a quiet, cozy, slightly idyllic life.

So, it really does feel like an intrusion when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) shows up unexpectedly. The two have a teenage son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) who lives with his mother. Peter’s not happy to see Kate, but she’s in a panic.

The school called to say that Nicholas hadn’t been showing up for class for over a month. Kate admits she’s been worried about him, and that he’s scaring her, but this news has shifted that into a crisis. She can’t make headway with him and wants Peter to step in and help, which of course he does.

Peter, who aims to be a strong, gentle, and loving father, sits down with his son. Nicholas is restless and agitated. He tells his father that he’s in constant emotional pain, and knows something is wrong, but isn’t sure what it is. He rails against his mother and begs his father to let him move in with him and Beth.

Of course, that shifts the dynamic in the family, in many ways revealing more subtle issues about Peter and Kate — and Peter and Beth — than about Nicholas. Still, what’s driving the action is Nicholas and the question of what’s going on with his mental health.

There’s a sweetness to him, but he’s unreliable. He lies, and is evasive, manipulative, uncentered, and easily flips into panic and a kind of manic anxiety. There are hints, of course, that maybe he’s been thrown into emotional chaos by his parents’ divorce. But his behaviour seems to suggest something deeper than that.

One of the flaws of the movie is that we never really know. When it comes down to it, the film really isn’t about Nicholas. It’s about Peter, and the larger theme of fathers and sons; specifically, the emotional legacy that is passed from generation to generation.

Outwardly Peter seems quietly confident, self-assured, and attuned to his family, but the more we see of him, the more we see a man who is uncertain, and has covered that up with a veneer.

We get a sense of why that might be when he stops to see his father, a wealthy — and cold and toxic —retired man played by Anthony Hopkins. At a moment when Peter is on his way to an achievement that he hoped to share with his father, he is verbally eviscerated by him.

It’s a powerful and shocking scene, delivered with casual brutality by Hopkins. Peter is reminded of the kind of man he doesn’t want to be. But there’s damage there. And father to son, the emotional patterns run deep. As Peter tries to guide his troubled son, he’s in new emotional territory, and finds himself triggered, reacting in ways that clearly surprise him.

The Son is Zeller’s second film and the second time the acclaimed French playwright has adapted one of his plays for the screen. The first was the beautifully crafted and deeply affecting The Father, which put us in the head of a man coping with Alzheimer’s. It was nominated for multiple Oscars including Best Picture and won Best Actor for Hopkins. Zeller and Christopher Hampton won Best Adapted Screenplay.

There are similarities between the two movies. They’re both intimate family dramas that deal with dire mental health issues and the impact that they have on a family. (It should be noted that The Son deals with suicidal ideation.)

Jackman carries much emotional weight and turns in a thoughtful performance. There are times when Peter’s reactions to situations seem outside of his control and, as Jackman plays him, you can see that even while he’s reacting, his behaviour seems to surprise and sometimes alarm him. For all his achievements in life, when faced with his son’s pain, Peter is in many ways walled off, and doesn’t really know himself.

McGrath, who looks like a young Timothée Chalament, is impressive in a tough role. He does a really good job of making the mercurial, troubled Nicholas someone we can care about, which is a challenge. Yet Nicholas seems to exist to give the other characters reasons to emote, and live their dramas.

Perhaps ironically, in a story about fathers and sons and the intergenerational emotional baggage, the film sacrifices Nicholas’s problems to focus on his father’s.

The Son. Directed by Florian Zeller, written by Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton. Starring Hugh Jackman, Zen McGrath, Laura Dern, and Vanessa Kirby. In theatres, January 20.