Family ties provide excruciating grievances for the once-close nuclear family found within The Son. Pull away out of fear, out of love, whatever the case it is documented well in this latest drama piece from Florian Zeller, whose daring writing style graces the big screen once again. High hopes to be had after The Father set such a high bar, but it is hard to vault such a monumental achievement on a sophomore piece for the silver screen, albeit one that Zeller attempts to navigate with grace and difference to his debut feature. That difference, unfortunately, is a more standard, less mind-bending affair that hopes to pry at the potential consequences of divorce and the impact it can have on children, new partners and old flames.
Keen Zeller may be to show the grieving process of lost love and the tense situation it places growing teenagers in, The Son takes a more standard and predictable approach. It is a drama through and through, bolstered by a resoundingly good bit of work from Hugh Jackman, whose surge in the drama genre has steered him well so far. Bad Education was just the start. His range in The Son exceeds expectations, but not by much. Jackman finds himself in steady hands as he portrays Peter, the brash and busy father figure who left his wife, Kate (Laura Dern) for a younger woman, Beth (Vanessa Kirby). It is as simple a story as that, but the impact of divorce and love for Kate and Peter’s son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) is the real narrative delight.
Beyond the usual back and forth of warring sides of family and coming together at last when they realise a larger problem is at play is a touching series of comments from Zeller. Never do they feel as though they can be connected for a wider point, as The Father felt, but they do appear to have some structure underlining them. Comments largely on the nuclear family and the impact its fracturing have, the reflection of a father on their son and the futile rejection of such notions are founded in great and dramatic scenes. Often, they are overbaked or stripped to their simplest form. Sometimes it is just enough to have Dern, who is largely absent for the first third of the film, appear with some sentiment of worry for Jackman and Kirby to riff off of. It would be enough if it weren’t so shaky, and some of that comes from the broad range McGrath is asked to undertake.
As strong a performer as the rest of them, McGrath not just holds his own but keeps The Son from falling apart. Without his varied performance, littered with cheery smiles shadowing darker, gruesome detail that comes to a head in as shocking a fashion as it is vaguely controversial. Dern is great in the small doses she is given, Kirby provides the moral ballast and lingering, hopeful future that Jackman must cling to if he has any chance of making sense of McGrath’s actions. Each plays their part. It is an adaptation of theatre after all, just not a particularly memorable one. Good performances filter through with good results. It is not the barn-burner The Father was, even if Anthony Hopkins does pop up for a brief scene to share that Academy Award-winning presence.
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