El hijo

I'll address the first thing that I see on the negative reviews: Zen McGrath as Nicholas does not "sell" it. I thought the same thing as I was watching the movie, he never brought me in, he was hard to read, he had a smirk that threw me off, a little smile that was hard to decipher, he seemed sarcastic and out of it, I never felt his pain... but after days of thinking about this film this is what I realized:

Teenage kids are hard to read.

That is the whole point.

I am a parent of a 15 year old boy and this movie shook me to my core. It really did. The parents couldn't read the boy (much like I feel most of the time), they went with what they saw from him and trusted that gut feeling vs what professionals were telling them, they trusted the memories they had as though those represented who the boy was now, they trusted their own desire for things to normalize, they trusted the good moments, they went with the unmistakable desire that "things will be ok". They let those desires take the wheel.

This is Hugh Jackman's best performance to date as a parent desperate for things to be ok as he dealt with his own issues of being a son himself, he wanted to avoid being a monster... not realizing that being a friend wasn't the solution.

X.

I don't know much about depression but I do know how people react to it if someone close to them have it. Florian Zeller may not have presented how accurate acute depression is but his depiction of characters around a person suffering from it is near perfect.

The Son works for me more than The Father because it relies very little on subtext and the story is out there in the open. Hugh Jackman gives his career best performance as a role of a successful person but an absent father. There are criticisms of how the movie does not empathize with Nicholos but I didn't feel it that way. I felt it was rather accurate because of how less most of us understand what depression is actually is. Most of the times, people think "it's just in your head" or "move forward" are actual solutions to depression.

The scene where Hugh Jackman fights with his son was spectacular and shows us how much we are like our dads. Hopkins appears in just one scene but that single scene shows the irony of Jackman's character. The ending was absolutely devastating and very brave. The Son is one of the very films which worked very well for me despite it's not so favourable general public reception.

The script seemed choppy and not believable, especially in the beginning; I had that feeling where you're acutely aware that they are actors doing a scene. More importantly, the film needed a much, much better actor to play Nicholas, someone who could do the role greater justice especially with Hugh Jackman as the lead. The film did touch on some very important themes including the pain and mourning that can come from divorce, especially for children, and also of course the difficulty of trying to understand and help a loved one with depression. The film felt a little long and drawn out, but had a very emotional and impactful ending that made it worth it.

I actually really liked this movie. I believe it tells a good story about family as their son struggles with a mental illness. The biggest problem with this movie is that some of its line deliveries come off as weird and unnatural. Also there is a scene that is mentioned but we do not actually see it. This movie is not an easy watch. The movie gets to be very heavy at certain moments. Even with all of those problems the movie is carried by a great performance by Huge Jackman and Lora Dern. This movie gives great insight into what it is like to be battle with a mental illness. Some people may not like this as much as me, but this is a really good movie.

It felt personal somehow, when thinking of myself in all their places. It is so hard and devastating. I sometimes see that look in my father's eyes, and sometimes in my mother's or my sister's, sometimes I have these mixed feelings and the deep conviction that I don't desire to keep on living, but I don't know how anyone else can survive this, anyone else that's similar to Nicholas. Such a real and painful movie. I don't know why it touched me so deep, and why it made me cry so hard, it felt too personal. And it makes you think, what can anyone do really? What can we do, and is it anyone's fault?