Criticism of ‘The Son’, mental health and suicide in the foreground

While ‘The Father’ (2020) immersed us with overwhelming empathy in the mind of a man with dementia, ‘The Son’ does not seem so willing to do an exercise in introspection. Florian Zeller adapts the second part of his theatrical trilogy with a hard-hitting look at mental health and suicide, in which a solvent Hugh Jackman plays a desperate father for understanding her teenage son, who suffers from depression.

However, the film soon becomes a missed opportunity. Zeller explores family fractures that lead to denial and misunderstanding, but along the way he prefers to walk commonplaces and activate emotional traps that don’t touch bones. It’s a shame that his most interesting ideas – the theatricality of spaces as a reflection of real and imagined lives, and how memories and longings distort reality – don’t come to full flower. Still, at least we can read ‘The Son’ as a moral about parenting deficient: fathers and mothers, this is what not to do.

To raise awareness of the importance of understanding mental illness

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DATA SHEET

Address: Florian Zeller Distribution: Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Anthony Hopkins, Zen McGrath Country: United Kingdom Year: 2022 Release date: 3–3-2023 Gender: Drama Script: Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller Duration: 123 min.

Synopsis: Peter’s busy life with his new partner Emma and their baby is thrown into chaos when his ex-wife Kate reappears with their teenage son, Nicholas, a troubled young man who is difficult to communicate with, aggressive and distant, and ends up to drop out of school.