The Son is a new film directed and written by Florian Zeller. The feature follows a recently re-married man called Peter (Hugh Jackman) and his relationship with his teenage son, Nicholas (Zen McGrath). The film starts with Nicholas’ Mother, Kate (Laura Dern), knocking on Peter’s door to talk about their Son. She recently discovered that Nicholas has been missing school for a month and is panicking about his unstable behavior. Kate tried to reach out to Peter, but he was unavailable. He has a new life with a newborn at home and a busy life at work as an attorney. The film’s set-up is captivating and catches attention because of the mystery of Nicholas’ behavior. We don’t see this character until later, and the first scene makes us wonder how he is and what is going on with him. It is easy to imagine all sceneries, is he Ezra Miller’s character in We need to talk about Kevin? Or maybe as Timothée Chalamet’s one in Beautiful boy? What we find does not amaze us as we expect: we see a sad, low-energy teenager with erratic behavior. Nicholas is depressed, and his depression does not look “cool,” as sometimes movies try to depict it. He is not a rebellious kid or a violent one. He is tired of being alive and not understanding why he feels that way. There is no logical explanation, and his parents don’t know what is happening to him.

McGrath’s performance as Nicholas has been broadly criticized; to be fair to him, it is a challenging state of mind to represent. When we see films showing characters facing mental health issues, we are used to seeing the process leading to it or hearing an explanation. In this film, the answer never arrives. Personally, that is the most exciting part of the film: it shows an entirely different perspective of depression and a genuine one. However, being accurate with the truth does not always work in filmmaking. I liked the take on depression in the film; it makes sense that a young teenager cannot express what is wrong with him. It is an age of being lost and confused, and depression is not something that has an apparent and specific reason; it is multi-factor. Since the film focuses more on the father than the son as a narrative thread,  it makes sense to see Nicholas from an outside perspective. We never understand Nicholas the same way. It is impossible to understand him for the parents. I’m also sure that the teenager does not understand himself too. He is feeling too overwhelmed to make sense of his depression.

I believe the film does not work because McGrath is not. It is more oriented to the script’s development and how the story focuses mainly on Peter. The point of view is Peter’s, and I’m unsure whether that is the best idea. Peter Has not lived with his son or shared closely with him in years. However, he decides to bring him to live with him and his new wife (who Nicholas does not like at all). The situation makes the teen even more unstable as he changes schools and shares a home with a stranger who does not welcome him entirely. Peter is never home. Hugh Jackman’s acting is excellent as a loving father. However, I felt that the script lacked the absent father layer of him deeply. Since the film’s beginning, I could sense his distance from Nicholas and Kate, but the writing and direction do not seem to notice that. He is shown as a caring father, and the film indulges him for being absent because men are always excused culturally. That bothered me intensely watching the movie. His Son had all the right to be angry at him, but the filmmakers are on the father’s side.

I thought that maybe focusing on two male characters was a way to explore male fragility, and there is a glimpse of that in the relationship between Peter and Nicholas. However, the fact that Peter was not close to his son since his divorce broke all that magic for me. Human relationships are complex, but it felt incoherent to have many scenes of heart-to-heart talks when you knew the father was too busy to care before. The fragility to me works way better in Nicholas, and I wonder whether the critics of the actor were criticizing the fragility of the character instead of the performance. Some people might find it unbelievable for a male character to show his feelings like that or to manifest depression the way it is shown in the film. However, the character’s actions are dull, and that is not the actor’s fault.

The script feels forced and is a little too long as the movie progresses. The story is simple and can be told more efficiently. Dragging it made it even more predictable. The end of the film is a “fake end.” This broke the whole film’s aesthetic and felt almost melodramatic in the worst way possible. I insist that the central issue of the film is the script. Visuals don’t help, either. Nothing is captivating in the camerawork or sets. Everything is dull visually, even the costumes. The cinematography of the film is functional rather than helping add something. A more careful visual strategy would have helped make the movie state its purpose more clearly.

The acting of Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern is excellent. They made me think about how parents can be blind in front of their children because of loving them too much and how dangerous that can be. That message comes through nicely, thanks to their strong performances.