The Son Review: Hugh Jackman Drama Is Ugly, Ridiculous And Inexplicably Terrible
“Son” is an ugly screaming question mark of a movie and inexplicably terrifying given the talent involved. It could take decades of research and armies of scientists to figure out what happened here. It is an adaptation of the second part of writer and playwright Florian Zeller's "spiritual trilogy", along with father and mother , each of which deals with families suffering from disorder and illness. Two years ago, Zeller adapted "The Father" for a film. It turned out to be a subtle and deceptively simple portrait of madness that featured Anthony Hopkins' best performance and earned him an Oscar. History will not repeat itself with this one.
The film follows Nicholas (Zhan McGrath), a depressed teenager, the son of rich and divorced parents Peter (Hugh Jackman) and Kate (Laura Dern). He was very upset about their breakup and didn't go to school for a month. Peter left Kate to marry younger Beth (Vanessa Kirby) and the couple now have a young son. Nikolay asks to move in with them. What at first looks like a positive step soon collapses into his further self-destruction. Adults notice the scars on his hands. He hides more and more from them. They then spend the rest of the film asking Nicholas what is wrong with him as he exhibits the most obvious symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder.
Apart from the nice touches of Ben Smithard's cinematography and Hopkin's small role as Peter's father , "The Son" has nothing to do with "Daddy" or its sensibilities. Zeller and his colleague Christopher Hampton, who translated many of Zeller's French plays into English, write about depression as if they first noticed it on a safari. Lots of curiosity. A little exotic.
It is quite unlikely that three adults, even if they are scattered, upper-class people who can ignore their children, have never heard of depression or its manifestations. Peter, Laura and Beth are presented as flawed or charming characters, but their ignorance is ridiculous. Sometimes it goes into a fit. They speak of Nicholas, played with clarity and imagination by McGrath, as irritable, dull and constantly on the verge of tears, a demonic presence in their home, with an elusive darkness in his eyes that only they can see. This is a brief description of a complex but widespread disease, completely without sympathy.
McGrath's performance may be subdued, but so is everyone else, even if Dern manages to steal a few moments of vulnerability as a suffering mother, largely without context. Jackman reads incredibly earnestly into the lighter moments of Peter's life, then turns to the tragic hero's sincere, over-the-top piety as darkness falls.
There are no bad intentions behind Son , but sometimes the stories are so poorly thought out and naively executed that they become ugly. This is especially evident at the end of Zeller's film, which is shot so early and so ugly that it borders on parody. Why no one noticed its absurdity is a real mystery.
Director: Florian Zeller. Actors: Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zane McGrath, Anthony Hopkins. 15, 123 minutes.
The Son hits theaters on Friday, February 17.
