I saw this movie months after it came out and yet I knew nothing about it. I was interested in director Florian Zeller‘s first feature film The Father, which just like The Son is from a play written by Zeller himself who also worked on the screenplay with Christopher Hampton (Atonement, Dangerous Liaisons). The film stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern (Wild, Jurassic Park), Vanessa Kirby, newcomer Zen McGrath, and Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lamb) who has a minor appearance in this film playing the main character’s father.

Premise: Peter has his busy life with new partner Beth and their baby thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate turns up with their teenage son, Nicholas.

Review: This movie is rough. I don’t mean it quality-wise but the story itself. It captures the ups and downs of the mental health journey of the patient and the people affected by it. It’s not very entertaining, and it’s not meant to be. It’s a bit uncomfortable to watch, at times I wanted to reach through the screen and wake these parents up while at the same time understanding why some of them acted or reacted the way they did. I’m not sure how I would have handled it.

The way the mental illness issues affect this family as a whole is very realistic to me, even if I’ve never been through anything even close to this. The film does a great job of handling doubt and denial. I second-guessed myself quite a lot during the film, never quite sure of who was doing the right thing, or what was really happening. Also, the level of denial in this film is crazy, particularly coming from the parents.

The Son is worth the watch as it tries to educate and inform about but it’s not doing it in the most efficient way.