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The Son's Room
User Score
8.8 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9

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  1. JackD.
    Oct 10, 2002
    8
    A small movie that works because it's sincere and honest, funny and sad. It's overly simplisitic, though.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. ChadS.
    Jul 29, 2002
    8
    Unlike "In the Bedroom", the third act in "The Son's Room" didn't make me cringe. A new character enters the mix of walking wounded and takes their minds off Andrea as they make an extended car trip. It takes a new country to make them feel better. The girl ushers in some fresh energy and staves off repetitiveness in the nick of time. You can't show people mourning for two hours but you shouldn't jar viewers to the extent that Todd Field did with his mildly overrated film. Although "The Son's Room" feels a little slight to be bestowed with the Palm d'or, some of the grief is quite palpatable. The haunting song that plays out to the final frame is probably what cinched the award. This is a good movie.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. MikeW.
    Nov 19, 2002
    10
    Stunning. It's in the same category as Tokyo Story in how sensitively and accurately it treats the process of grieving.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. MadelineB.
    Jun 4, 2002
    10
    Haunting and Beautiful! Wonderful film - Moretti and rest of case terrific, touching, lovely!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. JMc
    Nov 17, 2011
    10
    I rented The Son's Room again the other day, after many years. I was stunned by the understated emotional wallop it packed. That final scene is the most haunting damn thing. I can't get it out of my mind. I'm going to the shops now to see if I can buy the DVD.
  6. lasttimeisaw
    Mar 29, 2012
    6
    I watched this film several years before on TV, but interrupted and left unfinished, this time finally completed in the Febiofest’s special program of Nanni Moretti’s canon. The general thoughts after watching it in the cinema is that this Cannes’ Palme d’Or winner is lagging behind its award-winning prestige, during the whole process, it is difficult to single out any extraordinariness from it, which baffles me so much. The narrative is rather mediocre, any anticipated set piece are orchestrated in a mannered template, leaves a mawkish and maudlin impression of ennui (Brian Ono’s BY THE RIVER is overtly pretentious here). The pain of losing one’s dearest is a torment could slowly erode one’s soul and drop in from time to time, which has nothing unexpectedly thrilling or soothing from the film’s exposition. If Moretti could be ranked as the Italian equivalence of Woody Allen, I divine the chief enjoyment should spring from its script and dialogue, in this case it is just as barren and conventional like as other tacky family tearjerkers, in spite of a hotchpotch of various patients of the psychiatrist adds up some emotional bite while being not too sharp-wittedly different from other generic shrink cliches. Compared with QUIET CHAOS (2008), another bereavement drama starring Moretti under the helm of Antonello Grimaldi, which fetches a 7/10, THE SON’S ROOM is a torrent of tepid water, the warmth it heats up is not as unaffected as I had expected. The whole cast did a good job but nothing attracts any special attention, while Laura Morante’s tearless grief of losing her only son is over-stagy, ironically Moretti is a much more natural actor by comparison, after all, the film does not deserve his overstated cachet, nor does Nanni Moretti.… Expand
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 34
  3. Negative: 1 out of 34
  1. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    70
    I found this film deeply affecting as well. It has a gravity that's independent of technique, and an engaging spirit that's enhanced by flashes of comedy.
  2. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    There’s not a whisper of melodrama or sentimentality in the way Moretti tells his tale, guiding us through the stages of grief with calm, devastating lucidity.
  3. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    75
    The Son's Room is the anti-"In the Bedroom." I mean that as a compliment.
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