A misguided adaptation of a Florian Zeller play, The Son is painful
“What is it that isn’t working for you”
Perhaps cheered on the by the award-winning success of the cinematic adaptation of The Father, it’s maybe little shock that Florian Zeller and co have turned to a different of his performs to attempt to recapture the identical magic. It is thus a disgrace that they went with The Son, seen in the West End again in 2019, which proved to be one among his much less fascinating works.
As a author so identified for his inventiveness in type and construction, Zeller maybe loved wrong-footing audiences with the relative straight-forwardness of The Son. But in eradicating the tricksiness along with his writing, larger consideration will get paid (or fairly, will be paid) to the content material and with this play, there’s a critical deficit within the presentation of this narrative.
Sadly, the screenplay right here does little to deal with that, written by Zeller with frequent collaborator Christopher Hampton, because it depicts a shattered household’s troubling expertise with melancholy and a psychological well being disaster. Zen McGrath’s reclusive teenager Nicholas is the one struggling however because the title suggests, Hugh Jackman’s paterfamilias Peter is the main focus.
Which isn’t an issue in and of itself, the attitude of these round such points is extremely priceless. The drawback comes with the sheer naïveté with which that perspective is offered right here. Depression is handled as a very alien topic by all, as if it has by no means been heard of earlier than, and this fully ruins the dynamics of the interpersonal relationships right here, all seeming so synthetic.
Peter divorced Nicholas’ mom and now has a brand new spouse and child, which has lengthy estranged father and son. Nicholas is sad at his mum’s although and so it’s determined that he’ll keep along with his dad to see if that addresses a few of his points, regardless of the very fact he has a new child and there’s a gun within the residence…
Even with actors of the calibre of Jackman, Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby, Zeller’s route is painfully arch all through and even a late digression into one thing barely extra fascinating isn’t sufficient to save lots of this clunker.