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Florian Zeller

The Son: Imperfect People, Imperfect Film

January 19, 2023 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

I’ve seen this movie before. But not onscreen.

I know that, as a critic, my role is supposed to distance myself from a film. Talk about what’s good and what’s not so you know in advance (and I will discuss that here as well). But with Florian Zeller’s The Son, I admit that it’s a little harder to do.

Written and directed by Florian Zeller, The Son focuses on Peter (Hugh Jackman), a powerful executive who lives with his new wife (Vanessa Kirby) and newborn son. Jack seems to have it all but, when he receives a call from his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) about their teenage son Nicholas (Zen McGrath), his new life is quickly upended. Having missed school for months, Nicholas has become distant and angry since his parent’s divorce. However, when Nicholas moves in with his father, Peter struggles to connect with his son while balancing his new life and career.

Before we talk about the specifics of the film, forgive me as I speak about my own journey for a moment. (Feel free to jump past this if you’re not interested.) For two decades, I worked with teens who dealt with (seemingly) every possible social and family issue that could cause stress within the home. Drug and alcohol addiction, physical and verbal abuse, LGBTQ tensions, teen pregnancies and more were simply part of our daily life for our youth and we journeyed alongside them. However, mental health issues, ‘cutting’ and suicidal issues may have been tops on the list. I’ve spoken with youth who wanted the ‘release’ of self-harm and watched as parents struggled to make sense of what was happening with their kids.

It’s this lens that shaped my viewing of The Son.

As a prequel to Zeller’s previous Oscar-winning film The Father, The Son has received mixed reviews. From the performances of its leads (especially McGrath) to accusations of being exploitative in its storytelling, different pieces have pointed fingers at different aspects of the film that don’t always ‘click’. And, admittedly, some of these criticisms can be certainly be fair. While Father was subtler in its exploration of dementia, The Son takes a more traditional approach to its narrative structure. With that in mind, it’s not unfair to suggest that McGrath’s work does fall slightly flat in places and some of the performances do feel as though they’re acting. 

But, from my experience, The Son is definitely accurate.

In The Son, Zeller’s script does an excellent job of tracking the realities of teen mental health struggles. Told from the perspective of his father, Nicolas’ slide inside his own feelings is brought to life with painful authenticity. Moments of levity that trigger disconnection are not uncommon for teens struggling in this area and Zeller depicts the complexity of that balance quite well. However, because the film is told from the perspective of his father, these moments leave can the viewer confused. Why is Nicholas angry when he has a supportive family? Why does he feel the need to act out?

“When I was young, we didn’t deal with things this way.”

By embedding these ideas into his screenplay, Zeller highlights the questions that plague parents when their children are struggling. Just as Peter and Kate attempt to reconcile the infant that they knew and the youth that they have now, many other parents find themselves on similar emotional journeys. There’s a helplessness that they cannot explain and a guilt that they cannot shake. Sometimes, they simply stem from their own desire to help their children. Other times, those feelings of inadequacy are justified.

In this way, The Son shows parents as honestly as possible by depicting their love for their children but also their failings and flaws. Peter is a man who felt disconnected with his own father and has difficulty doing so with his own. His own brokenness affects his parenting today, despite his desire to be a better father than his was. These are imperfect people in an imperfect world (but, unfortunately, exist in an imperfect film).

It’s in these moments of honesty that Zeller’s script for The Son makes an impact. Though not as subtle as The Father, Zeller’s script effectively immerses the viewer in a world that’s all too real for many families. For this reason, the film could be important viewing for those looking for answers. And, hopefully, a film like this can prevent it from being a story that they’ve lived themselves.

The Son is available in theatres on Friday, January 20th, 2023.

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Anthony Hopkins, Florian Zeller, Hugh Jackman, laura linney, The Son, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath

7.18 Meeting THE FATHER + Oscar Talk!

April 24, 2021 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

Roll out the [digital] red carpet and strike up the [Zoom] speeches! Believe it or not, It’s Oscar season and time to crown the Best Films of the pandemic year. As efforts such as Nomadland, Judas and the Black Messiah and Sound of Metal all duke it out to claim the top prizes, Seeing and Believing’s Kevin McLenithan drops by to talk about some of the potentially important smaller awards and mistakes that the Academy may reward come this weekend. What’s more, we also take a deep dive into Florian Zeller’s nominated film The Father and discuss the fragile nature of safety and the relationship between humility and perspective.

You can stream the episode on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Amazon Podcasts! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

7.18 The Father + Oscar TalkDownload

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Podcast Tagged With: Academy Awards, Florian Zeller, Imogen Poots, Isolation, Nomadland, Olivia Cooke, Oscars, The Father

The Father: The Pain of Slipping Away

March 19, 2021 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

In The Father, Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony, an elderly but wealthy man who cannot admit that he can no longer care for himself. When his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) informs him that she intends on moving to Paris, she attempts to bring in a home care nurse, Laura (Imogen Poots). As his condition deteriorates, Anthony struggles to adjust to the changes with moods swings that range from charming to insulting and Anne is forced to consider that her father may be better off in a long-term care facility instead of his beloved London flat.

The debut film from director by Florian Zeller, The Father is an emotional journey into the heart of dementia and the how it affects those on the outside. Adapted from Zeller’s own 2012 play of the same name, the film feels as claustrophobic as a theatrical stage itself. Told almost entirely within one location, Zeller makes good use of his space, adjusting set designs and lighting based on Anthony’s mental awareness. By rotating cast members and characters, Zeller blurs the lines of reality and creates a cloud of confusion around Anthony that points to the anxiety that he’s experiencing himself.

Though the film features an incredible performance by Olivia Coleman as the caring but torn Anne, the film is truly anchored by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who may have turned in one of the best performances of his career. As the centre of almost every scene, Hopkins is simply remarkable as the fading elder, imbuing his character with both vibrancy and terror. Wildly fluctuating between childhood innocence, flirtatious humour and impulsive fury, Hopkins showcases the pain that he brings to those around him yet he never loses the soul of his character in the midst of his struggles.

In The Father, Anthony is a man who is constantly loved yet causes chaos within the home. Painfully watching as her father slowly slips away, Anne is willing to do whatever it takes to support him. However, despite her best efforts, the increasing speed of his dementia slowly eats away at her. Though she defends his behaviour as simply ‘his way’, every moment that he forgets her name or viciously lashes out drives a wedge into their relationship. She badly wants to continue to show him grace yet, as the situation denigrates, her soul begins to shred apart. As such, she becomes conflicted between caring for the man she has loved her entire life and the inner destruction he is causing within her life.

However, while we bear witness to the fact that those around him struggle with his health, we also feel torn for Anthony as he continues to misread situations and react accordingly with fear, humour and rage. Told almost entirely from Anthony’s point of view, the film’s rhythm can be jarring at times yet that is absolutely intentional. Like the watch that he can never seem to locate, Anthony is quickly losing all sense of time (and may even feel as though it’s being stolen from him). For him, multiple points of his life appear to be converging at once in a way that never truly allows him to settle into one particular moment. As Anthony’s connection to the world ebs and flows with his mental state, we too are meant to feel his sense of loss and confusion. In doing so, though he never excuses Anthony’s behaviour, the film gives the viewer a unique perspective of his experience so that they too might sympathize with him in the midst of his pain and fear. 

Honest and heartbreaking, The Father is an incredible example of what love looks like on the ground in the midst of struggle. Make no mistake. For anyone who has witnessed the onset of dementia first hand, the film is a harrowing journey to take. Even so, the film’s shift in perspective serves as a reminder that the real terror may be within the mind of the person we love and the need for grace in the midst of that understanding from those around them.

The Father will be released in theatres and on demand on Friday, March 26th, 2021.

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: dementia, Florian Zeller, Imogen Poots, Olivia Colman, Sir Anthony Hopkins, The Father, TIFF20

TIFF20: The Father

September 16, 2020 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

In The Father, Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony, an elderly but wealthy man who cannot admit that he can no longer care for himself. When his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) informs him that she intends on moving to Paris, she attempts to bring in a home care nurse, Laura (Imogen Poots). As his condition deteriorates, Anthony struggles to adjust to the changes with moods swings that range from charming to insulting and Anne is forced to consider that her father may be better off in a long-term care facility instead of his beloved London flat.

The debut film from director by Florian Zeller, The Father is an emotional journey into the heart of dementia and the how it affects those on the outside. Though the film features an incredible performance by Olivia Coleman as the caring but torn Anne, the film is truly anchored by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who may have turned in one of the best performances of his career. As the centre of almost every scene, Hopkins is simply remarkable as the fading elder, imbuing his character with both vibrancy and terror.

In The Father, Anthony is a man who is constantly loved yet causes chaos within the home. Even so, while we bear witness to the fact that those around him struggle with his health, we also feel torn for Anthony as he continues to misread situations and react accordingly with fear, humour and rage. Honest and heartbreaking, The Father is an incredible example of what love looks like on the ground in the midst of struggle. The film’s shift in perspective serves as a reminder that the real terror may be within the mind of the person we love and the need for grace in the midst of that understanding from those around them.

The Father is currently streaming on the TIFF Bell Digital Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Reviews, TIFF Tagged With: dementia, Florian Zeller, Imo, Olivia Colman, Sir Anthony Hopkins, The Father, TIFF20

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