It's not like family dramas dealing with mental illness can't make great movies. Ordinary People comes immediately to mind. But The Son never even comes close to making the grade. The biggest problem is
an uncomfortable split in focus between the two sons of the story. It's Peter's teenage son, Nicholas, who is the one with the urgent, life-threatening depression. Yet the film is more concerned with Peter, how he's coping with Nicholas, and his own troubled relationship with his stern father (a one-scene cameo by Anthony Hopkins that gives The Son it's only standout scene). The stories of the two sons are simply not well enough integrated to make for a satisfying story. Secondly, there's not enough depth to any of the characters. As a result, Nicholas mostly comes off as endlessly whiny, and Peter as more than somewhat self-absorbed. That the script is fatally weak becomes increasingly evident. Not even the always excellent Laura Dern and Hugh Jackman giving it his all can breathe real life into the grim proceedings. To be brutally frank, there are soap operas and 70s TV movies that have handled the same material with greater depth and finesse.
