The Son

Florian Zeller's adaptation of his own play. Peter is a successful lawyer in New York with a new baby from his second marriage. His former wife arrives and tells him their seventeen-year-old son Nicholas has not been to school for months. The boy moves in with him. Nicholas's condition is depression, and the film does not present it as a fixable matter. Peter means well; he talks, he makes plans, he believes he is doing everything he can. But he reads the problem through his own childhood and does not hear what his son is saying. The strongest scene is Peter's encounter with his own father; brief, and it explains the whole narrative. Zeller's previous film, The Father, was the same structure built on old age and dementia, and drew a great deal of attention. This one did not meet the same response; the main objection from critics was that the depression is described from outside and in too arranged a form. Hugh Jackman plays Peter, Zen McGrath plays Nicholas and Vanessa Kirby his second wife. Anthony Hopkins appears briefly. A heavy but well-acted film for anyone who likes family drama. Before you watch, know this: the subject is suicide and depression directly, and the film offers no consolation at the end.