“Being a Good Father”
“Son, tell me how good of a father you are? What do you want?” asks the main character, Peter (Hugh Jackman), his father, a distinguished gentleman (Anthony Hopkins). Peter is going through a very difficult time right now. The past knocked on the orderly everyday life of this success-oriented, always busy lawyer. In the house where he lives with a young wife (Vanessa Kirby) and a small child, his ex-wife (Laura Dern) and their 17-year-old son Nicholas, who needs help, would appear. The boy did not go to school and may be expelled just before important exams. Nicholas is an introverted loner with whom it is difficult to establish contact. The desperate mother turns to her ex-husband for help. It’s a last resort for her, but she has no other choice.
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A difficult journey begins for Peter, at the end of which he may be able to say to himself that he saved not only his son, but also himself and other family members. However, he must admit to the mistakes he has made, learn to both forgive and ask for them. One of the things he has to face is to look at his relationship with his father, as he is a demanding workaholic himself.
Mental suffering
Suspicions that Nicholas is using drugs or simply going through a tumultuous teenage rebellion turn out to be a mistake. The boy suffers so much mentally that it is difficult for him to deal with it. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he says at one point with tears in his eyes. All the time he struggles with the demons of the past and the trauma that his parents gave him when they parted. In one of the scenes, Nicholas shouts to his father that he used to assure how important their family is to him, and then he left. Then Peter explodes: “This is my life and I have the right to rearrange it!” However, there comes a moment of repentance, and with it the fight for what is most important begins.
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From theater to film
The French writer Florian Zeller entered the world of film by storm. His directorial, cinematic debut, the intimate, very powerful drama “Father” (2020), delighted the audience and critics. The film won two Oscars® – for Best Adapted Screenplay (based on the director’s theatrical play) and for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Anthony Hopkins, who portrayed a man suffering from progressive dementia. Olivia Coleman also received an Oscar® nomination for Best Supporting Actor in The Father.
Thanks to “Father”, the doors of film studios opened for the Frenchman, and the strength of his talent made the best actors want to play with him. On the set of The Son, his second film, Florian Zeller worked with Golden Globe winner Hugh Jackman, Oscar® winner Laura Dern and Vanessa Kriby. For the second time, Sir Anthony Hopkins, an outstanding Oscar® winner, played at Zeller’s, and the cast was completed by a young, very talented actor, Zen McGrath. The music was written by the legendary composer Hans Zimmer, also an Oscar® winner.
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The cinematographer Ben Smithard and the editor Yorgos Lamprinos also worked on his second film together with the well-known director, who also showed their mastery in “The Father”.
Zeller says in interviews that when writing the play, and then the screenplay based on it, he drew a lot from his experience as a father of two sons. The elder of them, Gabriel, was born when the director was only 19 years old and it was to him that his father dedicated his film. However, not only complicated family relations and the network of fathers and sons are in the center of the creator’s interest. He also cares about breaking taboos when it comes to mental illness. Teenage Nicholas, one of the main characters of “Son”, suffers from depression. “We have to feel comfortable enough in society to be able to talk openly about these diseases,” Zeller said in one of the conversations.
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“Son” had its premiere at last year’s International Festival in Venice. After the screening, the audience gave him a standing ovation. Critics immediately appreciated the excellent, dramatic role of Hugh Jackman, who played a very complex psychological character of a man who has to revise his relationship with a directive father and save his suffering son, left to himself years ago. The whole cast was showered with praise, and attention was drawn to the small but very significant role of Anthony Hopkins. Florian Zeller plans to shoot the third part of the family trilogy. It is to be an adaptation of another of his theatrical plays entitled “Mother” .
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
