The Son Evaluate (TIFF)

PLOT: A person (Hugh Jackman) and his ex-wife (Laura Dern) strive desperately to assist their teenage son (Zen McGrath), who suffers from crippling melancholy.

REVIEW: This 12 months’s TIFF has not been quick on devastating dramas, however the extra upsetting a movie is, the extra you may count on a certain quantity of backlash. Maybe that explains why Florian Zeller’s The Son noticed a shocking quantity of vitriol in direction of it following its TIFF screenings, with phrases like “manipulative” and “horrifying” exhibiting up in lots of write-ups. Right here’s one other phrase that not sufficient folks included of their critiques – actual.

The Son tackles the disagreeable however very actual subject of adlescent melancholy and self-harm. The movie, a type of companion piece to Zeller’s The Father, follows Peter (Hugh Jackman), a high-powered businessman on the verge of a significant coup, when requested to help a politician on his run in Washington. All appears to be going nicely, with him having a gorgeous spouse (Vanessa Kirby) and a child. However, he additionally has one other household he left some years again, and whereas he’s at all times tried to remain concerned in his son’s life, he carries a level of guilt for not at all times being there. When his ex arrives at his condo to inform him their son has been skipping college and chopping himself, he invitations the boy to maneuver in with him, solely to appreciate earlier than lengthy that his son suffers from crippling melancholy.

Maybe one of many issues that’s unnerving folks about The Son is it exhibits that melancholy is a troublesome factor to battle. You could be a nice father and mom, as Jackman and Dern are right here, and throw tons of cash at treating the issue, however you won’t at all times succeed.

Zen McGrath provides a haunting efficiency as Nicholas. A typically good boy, he resents his dad and new spouse a bit, however they’re not the reason for his melancholy, and he doesn’t notably blame them. As he tells his father, life is solely weighing him down, and he can’t clarify why he feels the best way he does. When you’ve ever suffered from melancholy, his portrayal will hit near residence in some ways, notably within the lighter moments, comparable to when he has an impromptu dance session together with his dad and stepmother. One second, he’s having a stunning time, and the following is lifeless behind the eyes.

Zeller brings quite a lot of empathy and compassion to the movie, however he doesn’t spare you the distress Nicholas feels or the way it rips aside his mother and father, primarily, as depicted right here, his father.

Jackman has not often been higher, with him enjoying an basically happy-go-lucky man, a charmer who merely isn’t certified to cope with his son’s situation. He’s used to with the ability to persuade or allure folks, however he can’t do a factor with Nicholas, and he is aware of it. We’ve by no means seen him as weak as he’s right here, with a standout scene being a chilling second the place he visits his estranged father, performed by Anthony Hopkins in a cameo. Initially, the 2 appear pleasant till Jackman begins to open up to his father, and the latter sees it as an assault on him, with him icing his son out in a very cold-blooded and merciless method. We see at this second what a awful father is, and it’s a reminder from Zeller (who tailored his play with Christopher Hampton) to the viewers that no matter what could have occurred in his marriage, Peter is way from a foul father.

Certainly, Dern’s Kate will get the identical therapy. We will inform she’s brokenhearted by the truth that Jackman left her, however she doesn’t weaponize that and may put these emotions apart to cope with their son. Ditto Vanessa Kirby because the compassionate stepmother. In a method, her half is probably the most difficult as she has to convey the frustration of the truth that she has her personal baby to boost and may’t enable what’s occurring with Nicholas to have an effect on her too profoundly, as she has her personal very actual priorities. She has to guard herself and her baby, however you additionally get the sense that she has a whole lot of empathy for Peter and compassion for Nicholas. That’s the great thing about The Son, no person on this film has purely unhealthy intentions (apart from Hopkins – though it’s prompt that he isn’t nicely), however in the long run, love isn’t at all times sufficient to save lots of somebody.

Zeller has made a chic movie, with a terrific rating by Hans Zimmer, in a uncommon stab at drama for the legendary composer. Whereas a companion piece to The Father, the movie isn’t a sequel as different reviews have prompt, though it simply might be. It’s not as radical as The Father, which took you contained in the thoughts of a person grappling with dementia. The type is extra typical right here, nevertheless it fits the fabric. Zeller does make one critical misstep on the finish, with a fantasy sequence leaving a foul style in my mouth (together with many different critics, it appears – who can’t get previous it), and its excision would higher serve the movie. Even nonetheless, I discovered The Son to be a transferring movie, and whereas the conclusion is upsetting, it’s imagined to be, with a ultimate line uttered time and again by Kirby’s character that I discovered haunting however true.