Film

The Son

Name: The Son
Genre: Drama
Released: 2022
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zen McGrath, Vanessa Kirby, Laura Dern, Anthony Hopkins

Other titles called The Son: the 2002 film, the 2017 series (AMC).

Family drama

A father tries to reconnect with his distant teenage son while building a new life, but love and good intentions prove insufficient against depression and family fracture. Florian Zeller's film is intimate, uncomfortable, and unsentimental—a portrait of how people who care about each other can still fail to reach one another. For anyone who's felt the helplessness of watching someone you love disappear into themselves.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a slow, unflinching family drama where silences and small domestic misreadings do the damage, and you can sit with discomfort that never gets explained away.

Skip it if you want a lighter night in, since its mood stays heavy and close throughout, and its portrait of mental illness is hard to watch without flinching.

What it asks of you: Roughly two hours of patient, mostly interior drama, with long quiet stretches and scenes that tighten slowly rather than build toward set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Manchester by the Sea2016

A man reluctantly becomes guardian to his teenage nephew after family tragedy. Like The Son, it refuses easy answers about grief and parental love, finding terrible honesty in silence and avoidance.

But The pacing is glacial and the emotional payoff is deliberately muted. If you need catharsis, this will frustrate you.

Moonlight2016

Three snapshots of a boy becoming a man, shaped by the men around him. It shares The Son's visual poetry and its belief that love doesn't always repair damage—sometimes it just witnesses it.

But The narrative is fragmented and dreamlike. Plot summary won't prepare you for what watching it actually feels like.

Boyhood2014

Richard Linklater filmed the same actor over twelve years as he grew from child to adult. It's the ultimate portrait of time, distance, and how parents and children become strangers to each other.

But It moves with real time, not movie time. Three hours of conversation, small moments, and very little drama might test your patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Son

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Worst Person in the World2021

Both trace how love fails not because people are cruel, but because people are trapped inside their own needs. Neither offers redemption; both offer recognition.

Joachim Trier's four-chapter film follows a woman across years of relationships and self-discovery. Like The Son, it's about how thoughtful, well-meaning people can hurt those closest to them while simply trying to live.

But It's a Norwegian film, and Trier doesn't move toward conventional emotional resolution. Some will find it self-indulgent rather than insightful.

American Beauty1999

A middle-aged man's mid-life crisis collides with his teenage daughter's adolescence. Both are searching for meaning; both damage each other trying. It's The Son's spiritual ancestor in American cinema.

But It can feel of its moment—the 1990s aesthetic and some character choices date it. The ending is also much more didactic than The Son.

A Ghost Story2017

A man dies early and watches his widow and house from beyond. It's metaphysically strange but emotionally clear: about how we haunt the people we love and can never fully reach them.

But The surrealism won't work for everyone. There's a scene that goes on much longer than you'll expect, and you'll either accept it or resent it.

Krisha2016

Ari Aster's first film, about a man returning from rehab and struggling to reconnect with his wary family. Raw, unflinching, and shot on a shoestring—it has the documentary texture of real pain.

But It's deliberately ugly and repetitive. The budget shows. Some viewers will find it self-indulgent rather than honest.

The Father2020

Anthony Hopkins (who plays the grandfather in The Son) is brilliant here as a man losing his mind, with his daughter trying impossibly to help. It's about how love becomes useless against forces we can't control.

But The editing and perspective shifts are intentionally disorienting. Some find it an innovative way to show confusion; others just find it confusing.

Hereditary2018

A family unravels after a death, and nothing—not love, not money, not therapy—stops the damage from spreading. Ari Aster understands that families can be mechanisms of harm even when no one intends it.

But It's a horror film, with images that are genuinely disturbing. Even viewers who appreciate the psychology may find the genre trappings superfluous.

The Farewell2019

A Chinese-American family gathers around a dying grandmother, and generational misunderstanding creates both comedy and genuine pain. It finds tenderness without erasing the distance between parent and child.

But It tones shift from funny to melancholy without warning. Some viewers prefer their dramas unified in mood.

Requiem for a Dream2000

Both examine how family members watch helplessly as someone they love disappears into a compulsion they cannot stop or fully understand. The Son is quiet; this is a howl.

Four people descend into addiction across parallel stories. It's visually and aurally radical—Darren Aronofsky builds an aesthetic experience of despair. The son's depression in The Son finds its full, darkest mirror here.

But It's relentlessly bleak and formally exhausting. The editing and sound design are deliberately punishing. This is not a film you watch passively.

The Souvenir2019

Both explore the gap between how we think we're doing and how we're actually doing—the stories we tell ourselves versus the reality others can see. The son cannot articulate his crisis; the protagonist cannot see hers. Both are drowning in plain sight.

Honor Swinton Byrne plays a film student in love with a man who is slowly revealed to be emotionally abusive. Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical film shows how difficult it can be to see damage from inside the relationship.

But It's formally experimental and paced like a puzzle. The central relationship is deliberately opaque. Viewers seeking clarity or answers will find neither.