I think I am one of the very few people who really loved this and got emotionally very engaged to it. Yes it is inferior to "The Father" but that was to be expected as "The Father" was one of the true masterpieces of the last years. This is more conventional and straight forward.
I have read many reviews of people complaining it is not depicting mental illness correctly or at least very shallow and cliched. I cannot judge that as I never experienced mental illness and to me it appeared to be very believable, Other complained that it is not out of the perspective of the son but of the father, well that makes sense. Because the film is less about mental illness as such but rather how it is handled by a parent. And it is about a generation conflict, the father wants to be a better father than his own father was. Ever thought that the title of The Son is not referring to the kid but rather to Hugh Jackman's character? He plays a son who had a bad childhood, who blames his father for a lot of things and whose father is not regretting any of it. Now he is in the position to face a challenge with his own kid and tries to be a better father than his own father. But as he never got affection, understanding and probably love as a son himself, it is hard for him to forward these emotions to his own kid who has serious issues that are therefor difficult to handle for Jackman's character.
This is how I interpret the film and title, and I think due to bad marketing that got lost in many audiences perspectives.
I loved Hugh Jackman who gave a tremendous performance. One of his career best for sure. He has many layers of emotions to go through and his final scenes are simply devastating. Surely deserves more attention than he received. Laura Dern is servevable as always. A good performance, not truly outstanding, but nails it nevertheless. Vanessa Kirby had the more interesting role and therefor was able to show more facettes due to the conflict she goes through. Anthony Hopkins appears in a small but very memorable and effective role. Great work again that shows his fantastic range (He plays to Grandfather characters this year that couldn't e more different .- see Armageddon Times).
Last but not least we have Zen McGrath. Many people complained about his performance. I dont get this. I thought he was fantastic and really captured the essence of his role. He did make me care for his character and his well-being. I was really attached to him and that proves that his performance worked perfectly for me. Dont understand the bashing.
Besides the fantastic ensemble acting we also have a very solid direction by Florian Zeller. He builds up tension effectively and takes his time for his characters. Great job again. The screenplay was great, too. I dont get the criticism there either. I think people were expecting too much for a second "The Father" and were disappointed that this was taking a completely different and more straight forward direction.
I have read many reviews of people complaining it is not depicting mental illness correctly or at least very shallow and cliched. I cannot judge that as I never experienced mental illness and to me it appeared to be very believable, Other complained that it is not out of the perspective of the son but of the father, well that makes sense. Because the film is less about mental illness as such but rather how it is handled by a parent. And it is about a generation conflict, the father wants to be a better father than his own father was. Ever thought that the title of The Son is not referring to the kid but rather to Hugh Jackman's character? He plays a son who had a bad childhood, who blames his father for a lot of things and whose father is not regretting any of it. Now he is in the position to face a challenge with his own kid and tries to be a better father than his own father. But as he never got affection, understanding and probably love as a son himself, it is hard for him to forward these emotions to his own kid who has serious issues that are therefor difficult to handle for Jackman's character.
This is how I interpret the film and title, and I think due to bad marketing that got lost in many audiences perspectives.
I loved Hugh Jackman who gave a tremendous performance. One of his career best for sure. He has many layers of emotions to go through and his final scenes are simply devastating. Surely deserves more attention than he received. Laura Dern is servevable as always. A good performance, not truly outstanding, but nails it nevertheless. Vanessa Kirby had the more interesting role and therefor was able to show more facettes due to the conflict she goes through. Anthony Hopkins appears in a small but very memorable and effective role. Great work again that shows his fantastic range (He plays to Grandfather characters this year that couldn't e more different .- see Armageddon Times).
Last but not least we have Zen McGrath. Many people complained about his performance. I dont get this. I thought he was fantastic and really captured the essence of his role. He did make me care for his character and his well-being. I was really attached to him and that proves that his performance worked perfectly for me. Dont understand the bashing.
Besides the fantastic ensemble acting we also have a very solid direction by Florian Zeller. He builds up tension effectively and takes his time for his characters. Great job again. The screenplay was great, too. I dont get the criticism there either. I think people were expecting too much for a second "The Father" and were disappointed that this was taking a completely different and more straight forward direction.