The Son is an unfortunate attempt at making a statement on Mental Illness that goes awry so damn fast it will make your head spin. The Son only got my attention from me because the leads Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern are two favorites of mine, plus the filmmaker just did a beautiful portrayal of dementia in The Father which got a ton of Oscar Nominations including a win for the legendary Anthony Hopkins.
So how does The Son fail on making a similar storyline so disastrously meaningless? I will start by saying the story around Mental Illness and depression here feels like they’re stuck in the 16th Century instead of the present day. I never thought I would say a movie would make ‘Wolf’ an easy watch, but here we are with this film.
Hugh Jackman tried his best to keep this movie afloat with his stellar performance, that was Golden Globe worthy but ultimately the movie itself makes you wonder what the Golden Globe members watched for it to be nominated in anything. Laura Dern felt wasted in her performance as her character was underwritten. At the end of the day The Son is no where near as poignant as The Father. It doesn’t even feel like a movie that would make it to the Hallmark channel. It’s just a misfire all together.
Overall Grade: 0.5/5 Stars
Written By: AJ Friar
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