The Son
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 25, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
18
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Associated PressMark KennedyNov 22, 2022
Writer-director Florian Zeller’s second installment in his trilogy examining mental health is an emotional wrecking ball almost exquisite in its destructive power. Read full review
82
TheWrapSteve PondSep 7, 2022
Where “The Father” was subtle and twisty, this drama is more agitated and restless, even melodramatic at times – but that’s a directorial decision that certainly fits the dark and troubling subject that the film explores but doesn’t exploit. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyFeb 17, 2023
Playwright Florian Zeller’s third instalment – and second film – in a cycle that includes The Father is a muscular, devastating drama that ought to have featured more prominently in the protracted “awards conversation”. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenSep 8, 2022
Playwright-turned-fillmaker Florian Zeller continues his one-man war on the world’s tear ducts with another hard-hitting portrait of domestic life in extremis. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 7, 2022
I watching The Son play out, this family’s tragedy becomes our own, and Zeller’s warning becomes impossible to ignore. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 7, 2022
The Son, though perhaps not as original and accomplished as The Father, is nevertheless an affecting, empathetic and intelligent drama. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 7, 2022
The Son is a laceratingly painful drama, an incrementally increased agony without anaesthetic. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 17, 2023
Though hardly anybody’s idea of a jolly time at the movies — and not nearly the equal of Florian Zeller’s previous film, “The Father” — “The Son” provides an arresting and unsettling experience. It’s an interesting movie, and different. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedDec 2, 2022
The third and final entry in French writer-director Florian Zeller’s acclaimed trilogy of plays about conflicted family values in perpetual crisis, The Son is a bold, harrowing and unflinchingly sobering film that is admittedly not for every taste, but an unavoidably intelligent piece of filmmaking for mature viewers that I highly recommend. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 7, 2022
It’s undeniably powerful stuff, but a more straightforward piece of storytelling, lacking the slippery, shape-shifting quality of his debut. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfNov 23, 2022
Unlike The Father, which expanded Zeller's stage source material with maze-like complexity, The Son pins us in for an endgame that you wish had more of a takeaway than a gut punch. Read full review
67
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferSep 7, 2022
There’s enough humanity from the story and performers alike that cuts to the soul and mostly offsets the uninspired direction. But “The Son” should shine at least a little brighter through the dark material given these participants and their previous triumphs. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 2, 2022
Jackman gives a great performance at the center of a frustrating film that never quite lets us hope that anyone involved will find answers, and never lets its characters, or the viewer off the hook even if they do. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 28, 2022
This is one of those grim movies that requires viewers to endure the experience; however, instead of providing a worthwhile payoff, it never varies from the expected trajectory and leaves the viewer as cold at the end as the emotional temperature of the key relationships. Read full review
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