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Son, The
New Yorker Films

Son, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 86 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.3 out of 10
based on 18 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 11 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Olivier Gourmet, Morgan Marinne, Isabella Soupart, Rémy Renaud, Nassim Hassaïni, Kevin Leroy, Félicien Pitsaer, and Fabian Marnette

A divorced carpentry instructor at a vocational training center finds his life turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious student. (New Yorker Films)


GENRE(S): Foreign  
WRITTEN BY: Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
 
DIRECTED BY: Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
 
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 25, 2004 
Video: May 25, 2004 
Theatrical: January 10, 2003 
RUNNING TIME: 103 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Belgium / France 
LANGUAGE(S): French (with English subtitles) 

Original French title "Le Fils"; Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Special Mention), Best Actor (Gourmet), 2002 Cannes Film Festival

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is as assured and flawless a telling of sadness and joy as I have ever seen.
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100
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
The ability to conceive a compact drama on this huge subject and to embody it as perfectly as they have done, added to what they have already accomplished, puts Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne among the premier film artists of our time.
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100
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
It combines a fresh and exciting style with stunning performances and that rarity in current film, a deeply humanistic story.
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100
Slate David Edelstein
By the climax, we can hardly breathe -- The outcome is less important than our utter and complete empathy with this man. As we await what he does, we breathe with him, in and out. This is an astonishing movie.
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100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The Dardennes's masterful casting and austere style amplify this simple but powerful parable.
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90
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The Dardennes sustain that tension through a masterful closing drive that resembles the final third of "In The Bedroom," only without the same dreadful inevitability.
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90
Village Voice J. Hoberman
For all its quasi-documentary materialism, The Son is ultimately a Christian allegory of one man's inchoate desire to return good for evil. The movie requires a measure of faith, and like a job well done, it repays that trust.
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90
Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
There are all sorts of ways to look at The Son -- as a philosophical thriller, as a statement of faith, as a call to political arms or just as a terrific entertainment.
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90
The New York Times Dana Stevens
To call The Son a masterpiece would be to insult its modesty. Like the homely, useful boxes Olivier teaches his prodigals to build, it is sturdy, durable and, in its downcast, unobtrusive way, miraculous.
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90
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Makes no attempt to entertain us. Much of this extraordinarily tactful movie, like "Rosetta," is shot in close-up, focusing on the back of Olivier's neck, as if inviting us to see the world as he does.
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90
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
To my knowledge there's no one anywhere making films with such a sharp sense of contemporary working-class life -- but for the Dardennes it's only the starting point of a spiritual and profoundly ethical odyssey.
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88
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's a movie imbued with a fierce intimacy -- a tone and style similar to cinema verite documentary -- but it's not a banal realism, even if the characters and settings in contemporary working-class Liege initially seem mundane.
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80
TV Guide Ken Fox
The results are a harrowingly intimate connection with a torn, tormented father, and an uncommonly powerful film.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Shrewd, highly controlled little film from Belgium that builds to an unexpected emotional climax.
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75
New York Post V.A. Musetto
The real star of The Son isn't lead actor Olivier Gourmet. It's the back of his neck, which the camera obsessively focuses on throughout this difficult but rewarding Belgian drama.
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70
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
A prime piece of whirlybird filmmaking, and the technique saps what might have been a powerful experience.
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70
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Whatever allure The Son has lies in its very remoteness, in its resolute refusal to show us all but the most delicate emotional vibrations. It also moves very sluggishly.
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50
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Sitting through the film is punishing work. The jittery closeups create a response that is more physical (I'm thinking nausea) than emotional, and there are no respites.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a10:
Suddenly, every banal action by this sullen carpenter is significant. Our focus moves away from an overwhelming awareness that this film is being shot with a handheld camera, and onto the blank slate of a face we suspect is a signpost for an imploding soul. Before our very eyes, "The Son" transforms from a stunt into truth, artifice into edifying art. Emilie Dequenne is easier on the eyes than Olivier Gourmet, but "The Son" probably surpasses the Palm d'or-winning "Rosetta" from Cannes '99, simply because we're in disbelief that these talented filmmakers made another great film with this avant-garde approach that stops precariously short of being arch. Ultimately, "The Son" is a suspense film. Without any music cues to prepare us, we're kept on edge everytime the mentor is out of frame in context with his younger companion.

David T gave it a1:
Wow, What a bore. NOTHING Happens! cure for insomnia.

J. Ryan G. gave it a9:
You can cut the tension with a chainsaw. But why? What really happens? I'll tell you. When we watch movies, we rarely get the opportunity to feel what it really feels like to be in the particular situation the characters are in. A car wreck in the movies doesn't always make us feel like we felt when our own cars wrecked. Sex scenes rarely remind us of experiences we have had. But this movie builds the kind of tension, alienation, paranoia, and finally, desperation, that one must surely feel when in the situation these main characters are in. And, let's just assume, few people have ever been in their positions.

Matthew N. gave it a10:
This is a film which has subverted and re-invented the grammer of cinema. The work of two auteurs. A rewarding and superbly rich experience. This is a film that is experienced, not just watched. This film is high art.

Nicholas B. gave it a10:
Art distilled to its finest purity.

Buttered Popcorn gave it an 8:
Quite a good movie. Understatement abounds in this film. And it is a consistent, engaging peice of work. But you do have to wonder if it was so necessary for the camera to spend so much time focusing on the back of the main characters head, and if their had to be so much hery jerky close-ups so unrelentingly throughout. And I have to wonder why the script takes so long to disclose what the real connection is between the main character (teacher) and the new student. Long before the truth is disclosed, you start conjuring up theories of sexual deviance, etc... Couldn't they have gotten to the issue a littel quicker- after all, they still have most of the movie to resolve it, and nothing is gained by dragging out this essential piece of information besides sending the viewer down the erroneous paths that have nothing to do with the real point of this movie. But these are minor points in a very engaging, poignant movie.

Vince H. gave it a 10:
Ummmm, okay. The first reviewer obviously know nothing about film. He is the type who thinks Fellini is an Italian noodle. This movie is an astonishing masterpiece. I never review here, but I felt compelled to after the first review my detract people from seeing this. There is nothing to say except see this film of live an unfulfilled life.

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