The Son

A surefire clue to family dysfunction and animosity comes twice early in The Son, when separate characters are greeted identically: “What are you doing here?”

It’s more of a follow-up than a sequel to German director Florian Zeller’s 2020 film The Father but explores similar thematic territory regarding fractured family dynamics. This effort, however, doesn’t provide much fresh insight into intergenerational relationships.

Perhaps intended as a cautionary tale about absentee parenting, adolescent mental illness, the value of role models, and the effects of divorce on children, it becomes an earnest and relentlessly downbeat melodrama with unsympathetic characters who inhibit a deeper emotional resonance.

The story centers on Nicholas (Zen McGrath), a brooding and angst-ridden teenager who has sunk into a deep depression while living with his recently divorced mother (Laura Dern), to the extent he would rather slit his wrists than attend school.

He’s harboring internalized resentment and hostility but has trouble expressing the source or cause. “I don’t understand where all this sadness comes from,” his oblivious mom says.

Nicholas expresses a desire, with questionable sincerity, to live instead with his father, Peter (Hugh Jackman), a workaholic lawyer with a young wife (Vanessa Kirby) and an infant son.

However, as the self-absorbed parents play the blame game, Nicholas’ condition worsens. Peter would rather cure him simply by speaking it into existence rather than taking time to learn about the real issues behind their crumbling relationship.

A lunch with his unforgiving Washington bigwig father (Anthony Hopkins) exposes a legacy of harsh masculinity and sets the stage for a reckoning for a man better at deflecting than accepting his own paternal shortcomings.

Zeller and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Atonement) won an Oscar for their previous collaboration, but this adaptation of Zeller’s stage play is more powerful in spurts than cumulatively, resulting in a manipulative collection of unearned payoffs.

The committed performances add depth and conviction, particularly newcomer McGrath in an understated turn as an only child — with a shallow back story — enduring a downward spiral with vague symptoms treated as an inconvenience by his caregivers, rendering him a pawn with nowhere to turn for help.

As the film wallows in their misery, some moviegoers might relate to the central moral dilemma. Yet as the confrontations become more frequent and intense, the emotional core of The Son remains hollow.

Rated PG-13, 123 minutes.