The Son (2022)

Zeller delivers another hard-hitting portrait of domestic crisis that is tough but rewarding. Jackman gives a career-best performance full of empathy and compassion in this story of parental failure.

Zeller adapts his most personal play into a tense, important film about mental health that succeeds in getting audiences thinking. Hugh Jackman delivers a layered performance as a man caught up in his own kind of performance as an ideal patriarch.

The film is undeniably powerful but a more straightforward and conventional piece of storytelling than The Father. It is compassionate and acutely observed with a wrenching Jackman performance.

The film features credible work from McGrath but lacks insight into his character and often feels stiff and sanitised. Jackman captures guilt behind a facade but struggles in more anguished scenes.

The critic calls the film a stiff and straightforward family portrait that makes the prior film seem far better by comparison, lacking puzzle-box magic and emphasizing the senselessness of depression through simplicity.

Zeller’s follow-up fails to match the emotional impact of The Father and offers a reductive take on teen depression. The film is relentlessly miserable with stagey dialogue and thinly realised characters despite its starry cast.

The film is well-intentioned but poorly constructed and disappointing compared to Zeller's previous work. It features some affecting scenes but relies on superficial and manipulative storytelling.

Zeller’s follow-up fails to match The Father, resulting in a drab, simplistic soap opera with mopey characters and one especially ill-judged performance.

The critic finds the film overwrought and underwhelming, a bleak TV-movie-level affair with simplistic solutions to complex mental health issues, though strong performances from the cast nearly make it watchable.

The film settles for shallow character development and self-indulgent tropes that distract from a strong Hugh Jackman performance. It adds little of substance to the conversation about clinical depression and holds its characters frustratingly out of reach.

Zeller's leaden drama fails to probe the perspectives of its characters and leaves actors stranded with clunky lines. It tackles adolescent depression in an artificial, midcentury manner unlike the subjectivity of 'The Father.'

The critic finds the film emotionally unconvincing, dramatically rote, and unapologetic about treating a child's depression as a parental burden, making one question the prior film's quality.

The film is a familiar, solidly told and well-acted story of family crisis but lacks the inventive storytelling of Zeller's previous film The Father. Hugh Jackman gives a strong dramatic performance as the father.

The script is mostly a simplistic and over-earnest mess that fails to live up to The Father, with the focus on the father undermining the son's pain. A few sequences are sublime and the cast, especially Jackman, Dern and Hopkins, is superb.

An appalling, manipulative follow-up to the masterpiece The Father, cynically directing attention to the parent’s anguish while mishandling the child’s mental health crisis.

Zeller’s follow-up lacks the cinematic creativity of The Father and often spills into melodrama despite a strong Hugh Jackman performance. The film relays its tragic events with plangent plainness rather than innovative technique.

Zeller’s follow-up is a solid, affecting domestic drama about a parent struggling with his teenage son’s mental health issues, but it lacks the complexity and ingenuity of The Father. Jackman gives a terrific performance as the high-achieving lawyer knocked off kilter, though the insights are basic and the storytelling more straightforward.

The critic finds Hugh Jackman outstanding as the father but deems the film stubbornly unemotional overall, with the son's character kept at a distance and the direction turning the story into a punishing slog.

The film is a contrived and heavy-handed study of teen depression that never feels as harrowing or moving as it should, despite strong performances. Zeller avoids glib answers but the drama feels pre-ordained and downbeat.

Zeller’s latest is a wearily predictable prequel to The Father that lacks compassion and cinematic style. It features bulgy histrionics from Jackman in a cautionary family drama about the impact of divorce on a troubled son, with Hopkins in a desultory cameo.

The critic calls it a strong, emotionally powerful character-driven family drama with an intimate feel and superb cast performances, especially Hugh Jackman as a father facing impossible choices. It highlights the universal impact of mental health struggles on families.

Jackman delivers one of his best dramatic performances in this wrenching portrait of depression and family crisis. The film accurately captures the devastating nature of mental illness through strong acting and emotional intensity.

The critic describes it as a serious, sensitive examination of teen depression and family guilt that is bolder and more agitated than Zeller's previous film but remains attuned to mental illness. It singles out the remarkable cast, including a devastating cameo by Anthony Hopkins, and the way everyday spaces convey dread.

Zeller explores intergenerational trauma, boundaries and the limits of parental love in this drama centered on a teenager's depression. Strong performances, especially Hopkins as a cold patriarch, and precise direction highlight the disconnect between parents and child amid mounting guilt.

The film attempts to confront depression but is flawed by its focus on the father's suffering over the son's, diluting its power despite strong performances from Jackman and McGrath. Sound design and generational trauma elements are highlights, but the narrative feels distracted and hesitant.

The critic finds the film bleak and false, missing the humanity of Zeller's previous work The Father; it handles depression on a surface level without emotional impact.

Jackman anchors the domestic drama effectively, but Zeller fails to replicate the magic of The Father, resulting in a middling, maudlin piece that feels less cinematic despite thematic weight. Over-the-top elements and uninspired direction undercut the story's potential.

The critic finds it a heavy-handed and clumsy melodrama that doesn't do justice to its strong cast of Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, and Vanessa Kirby. They single out the actors' performances for praise while criticizing the script's lack of nuance and stagey quality.

Zeller delivers an assured follow-up to The Father, successfully tackling mental health, guilt and parental struggles with a strong ensemble cast. The film benefits from skillful direction and chaotic camerawork that mirrors the characters' turmoil, though it is slightly less impactful than the debut.

The film dehumanizes depression, treats it manipulatively from the outside, with stilted performances and no real insight or empathy.