The Son (2022)

The Son is the kind of intimate, grown-up drama that doesn’t reach for easy catharsis; it sits with the messy, painful spaces between people who love each other and still can’t quite connect. Florian Zeller directs with a quiet precision, letting silences and small choices carry enormous weight, while Hugh Jackman delivers one of his most raw, searching performances as a father trying to do right and realizing how little he understands. The film’s tone is sober and emotionally exacting, but it’s also intelligent and compassionate, treating mental health and family fracture with seriousness rather than sensationalism. Fair warning: it’s a heavy watch and may be triggering for some given its themes, but if you’re willing to lean into a harrowing, beautifully acted experience, it’s the sort of movie that stays with you long after the credits.

The Son is clearly aiming for an urgent, compassionate look at depression and a father’s desperate attempt to “do the right thing” while juggling a rebuilt life. But it often plays like a prestige tearjerker on rails: the writing leans hard on speeches and big emotional beats that can feel forced, while the pacing lurches between tense confrontations and stretches that don’t deepen the characters much. Hugh Jackman and Vanessa Kirby bring real commitment, and there are moments that land, yet the film’s blunt melodrama and tidy psychology may leave you feeling pushed rather than moved. If you’re sensitive to depictions and discussion of self-harm and suicide, or you prefer nuanced mental-health storytelling over heavy-handed tragedy, this one may not be for you.