--- title: "& Sons" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/and-sons" fi1m_score: 58 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-09-20T20:59:17.100734+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T21:12:51.352900+00:00" region: "IL" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # & Sons (2026) Directed by Pablo Trapero · 1h 59m · Drama **Fi1m score: 58** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* We would gladly have spent longer with Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, preferably in a shorter film > Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton give *& Sons* some force, but Pablo Trapero’s family drama is too thinly written and too laborious to recommend. The performances deserve a more convincing film. ## Synopsis Andrew (Bill Nighy) is a dishevelled author with a drinking problem, at the centre of a drama about family relationships. The characters around him include Andy (Noah Jupe), Jamie (George MacKay), Richard (Johnny Flynn) and Isabel (Imelda Staunton), with Dominic West as Rainer and Anna Geislerová as Gerd. Pablo Trapero directs this adaptation of David Gilbert’s novel and co-writes the screenplay with Sarah Polley. Arthur Conti, Shalom Brune-Franklin and Pamela Shaw also appear, playing Emmett, Jeanie and Alice respectively. ## Review *& Sons* is a family drama with two performances worth caring about and too little around them to justify the time it takes. Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton give it force, but we cannot recommend the whole film on their account. Pablo Trapero directs this adaptation of David Gilbert’s novel from a screenplay written with Sarah Polley. It wants us to look closely at a difficult family, then keeps failing to give us enough to see. Nighy plays Andrew, a dishevelled alcoholic author, and the performance is the clearest reason to persist. He makes the man’s disorder interesting without making it attractive, which is a useful start for a drama about the people around him. An author’s drinking can easily become a shortcut to suggesting depth; Nighy gives Andrew enough weight to avoid that. The difficulty is that the film seems to expect the performance to supply much of the depth elsewhere, too. Staunton, playing Isabel, keeps the drama believable, and her confrontation with Nighy is its most persuasive stretch. We were moved by it: Staunton gives the family conflict a seriousness that the surrounding melodrama struggles to sustain. These two make a quarrel matter without requiring us to find everyone involved sympathetic. There is enough in their exchange to suggest how much stronger a plainer version of this film might have been, with more time spent on the relationships themselves. Trapero and Polley’s screenplay is much less secure when it asks us to accept the explanation on which the larger drama depends. We will not describe it, but its implausibility matters because it distracts from the family relationships that should hold our attention. A family drama can accommodate unlikely events if the people remain convincing, and this one has not made them substantial enough. Noah Jupe’s Andy, George MacKay’s Jamie and Johnny Flynn’s Richard belong to an ensemble that needs more space to become people we know. That leaves the other departments supporting emotions the script has not earned. Diego Dussuel’s cinematography is most effective when Nighy and Staunton give it something definite to attend to in their confrontation. Sonja Klaus’s production design contributes less to our involvement than those performances do. Cristóbal Tapia de Veer’s music has the same difficulty: our attention keeps returning to the credibility of the writing, when it ought to be on the family. The editing, credited to Gemma Cabello, Thom Smalley and Trapero, does not give the drama enough momentum across its 119 minutes. Its restraint has some value: the quieter emotional passages offer relief from the effort of accepting the writing. But restraint becomes laborious when it brings so little new understanding of the people involved. We spend too long waiting for another exchange as convincing as Nighy and Staunton’s. Even a fondness for this cast will need some patience. *Fi1m score 58, published 20 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is & Sons worth watching?** *& Sons* is not quite worth watching, and we scored it 58: Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton are the reasons to persist, but the film around them is too thinly written and too slow to recommend. Admirers of either actor will find a confrontation scene that repays their patience. Everyone else will spend 119 minutes waiting for a second one. **How long is & Sons, and what is it rated?** *& Sons* runs 1h 59m. It is a drama film. **Where can I watch & Sons in Israel?** *& Sons* is not on any streaming or rental service in Israel at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How does & Sons compare to Tokyo Story?** *& Sons* is the weaker of the two family dramas, and *Tokyo Story* is the one we recommend. Ozu finds his force in small, ordinary failures of kindness and makes ordinary neglect almost unbearable without needing a villain. Trapero's film relies on an implausible explanation for its larger drama, and its supporting family never becomes substantial enough to hold attention between Nighy and Staunton's scenes. **Is & Sons based on a true story or a book?** *& Sons* is based on David Gilbert's novel, not on a true story, and Pablo Trapero co-wrote the adaptation with Sarah Polley. Knowing the book is not required to follow the film. Whether it helps is another matter: the screenplay asks us to accept a central explanation we found hard to believe, and readers may judge for themselves how much of that came from the page. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Screen Daily** (55/100, inferred): The critic describes it as an intriguing but ultimately insufficiently deep family drama with a soft sci-fi twist that fails to sustain the melodrama. Nighy’s transformative performance as the disheveled alcoholic author and Staunton’s grounding presence are singled out as strengths. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/and-sons-review-bill-nighys-disheveled-alcoholic-author-heads-intriguing-family-drama/5208765.article) - **The Guardian** (50/100, inferred): The film feels nebulous and laborious due to an implausible central twist-reveal that undermines its emotional core. The standout element is the riveting confrontation scene between Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/17/and-sons-review-bill-nighy-imelda-staunton) - **The Wrap** (75/100, inferred): The film is a flawed yet fascinating family drama that steadily grows on the viewer. It singles out the strong performances, especially Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, along with the more restrained emotional moments for praise. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/sons-review-bill-nighys-bad-dad-leads-a-strong-surprising-family-drama/) ## Details - **Director:** Pablo Trapero - **Director:** Pablo Trapero - **Screenplay:** Sarah Polley, Pablo Trapero - **Novel:** David Gilbert - **Cinematography:** Diego Dussuel - **Editor:** Pablo Trapero, Gemma Cabello, Thom Smalley - **Music:** Cristóbal Tapia de Veer - **Production design:** Sonja Klaus - **Costume design:** Allison Wyldeck - **Producer:** Phin Glynn, Cindy Teperman, Pablo Trapero - **Cast:** Bill Nighy as Andrew; Noah Jupe as Andy; George MacKay as Jamie; Johnny Flynn as Richard; Imelda Staunton as Isabel; Dominic West as Rainer; Anna Geislerová as Gerd; Arthur Conti as Emmett - **Runtime:** 1h 59m - **First release (Canada):** 7 September 2025 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRXtqE_yrPQ ## Where to watch in Israel Not streaming, renting or buying in Israel at the last check. ## If you liked this - *Tokyo Story* (1953), Fi1m 92: A family drama that finds its force in small, ordinary failures of kindness — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story.md) - *The Squid and the Whale* (2005), Fi1m 83: A literary father’s vanity leaves his children doing more than their share of growing up — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-squid-and-the-whale.md) - *Festen* (1998), Fi1m 85: A family gathering where the speeches make staying at the table increasingly difficult — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-celebration.md) - *A Christmas Tale* (2008): A large, difficult family, with enough warmth to make the quarrels matter - *Wild Strawberries* (1957): An ageing man faces uncomfortable memories, with room for tenderness as well as regret --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/and-sons