‘The Son’ Isn’t Half-Bad, But Exploits Mental Illness; Zen McGrath Delivers Terrible Performance [Review]

Toronto will be known as the place where Florian Zeller’s “The Son” officially crashed and burned. It currently sits at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is not the reception Sony Pictures Classics expected for the film. It is now being released November 25th.

The drama revolves around a family torn apart by a depressed teenage boy. This boy is Nicholas (Zen McGrath), and a couple of years after his parents’ divorce, the 17-year-old no longer believes he can stay with his mother, Kate (a low-key Laura Dern).

Nicholas decides to move in with his father Peter (Hugh Jackman) and Peter’s new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby). For a while, things seem to get better, but, of course, given the severe mental health issues this boy has, he also starts to rebel against Peter and Beth.

In a way, the hate being directed at Zeller’s family drama is unwarranted. For most of the film, you are invested in the dynamics of this four-piece character drama. However, the ending irked me to no end and I think was probably the deal-breaker for much of the hate being spewed towards this film. It’s flat-out exploitative of its titular character’s mental illness, but it also engages in the said exploitation via implausible story turns and bad acting.

Jackman’s Peter juggles work, his new baby with Beth, not to mention the offer of his dream job in Washington. Peter tries to care for Nicholas as he wishes his own father did, but there’s only so much good parenting one can do when the said kid is incredibly vulnerable.

McGrath’s performance is a problem. Despite him playing a person who we should feel sympathy for, he comes off as flat out annoying, to the point where you want to scream at the screen. The more his character loses his mind, the more McGrath uses these obnoxious tics to paint his character with.

Jackman is stellar, until he is not. The guy has charisma, he’s a movie star, but at the end of the day, when his acting chops are called to be stretched out for a few emotional scenes, his delivery strikes out. Ditto the movie, which wraps up in improbably weak fashion. On a more positive note, Vanessa Kirby is excellent here.