The Son Teaser: The Director Of The Father Is Back For More Harrowing Family Drama
If there's one movie that holds a special place in my pandemic memory, it's "The Father." Florian Zeller's film about the fractured and frightening day-to-day experiences of a man living with dementia was the first film I saw in theaters after getting my COVID-19 vaccine, and since I got mine quite early, theaters were still completely empty. That meant no one was around to notice me gasp and scowl and cry my way through the Anthony Hopkins-led film, which is an emotional thriller as much as it is a family drama.
No one was in my theater, but people still showed up for "The Father," particularly at the Academy Awards, where Hopkins took home a trophy for Best Actor. The film also earned a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, and soon after "The Father" earned its Oscar nominations, Zeller announced his intention to bring another of his plays to the big screen. Thus, we have "The Son." The film's first teaser was released today, and you can check it out below.
Anthony Hopkin's father figure returns
To be fair, this is just a 53-second teaser, which means it keeps a lot of things hidden. Hopefully, the full trailer will elucidate the film's plot more clearly. Mostly, we see that Jackman's Peter is a businessman who ends up caring for his teen son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) after some type of incident that the film's official synopsis says involves Nicholas going missing from school. Peter's partner Beth, played by Vanessa Kirby, seems to think something's wrong with the boy, while his mother Kate, played by Laura Dern, is worried about him too.
This teaser may be a bit opaque, but the film is based on Zellner's 2019 play, which The Guardian's review says "movingly shows the powerlessness of a parent confronting filial depression." It sounds pretty harrowing, meaning that if the film lives up to the play, it'll be Zellner's second feature that spotlights the terror of neurological conditions and their impact on one sprawling family.
Anthony Hopkins' character Anthony, then, is meant to be the same one we saw bickering with Olivia Colman in "The Father," though none of the other actors in "The Son" appeared in that movie. Interestingly, this is just the second of three acclaimed plays Zellner wrote as a trilogy. The third, "The Mother," hasn't yet been adapted for the big screen. Sony Pictures Classics film "The Son" will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September ahead of its November 11, 2022 release.