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
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 19, 2023
Zeller explores how sadness repels; how people involuntarily recoil from depression, perpetuating the isolation of the sufferer. Read full review
40
NMEPaul BradshawFeb 17, 2023
Hopkins steals the film with a wonderfully unlikeable cameo, but it’s the triple-header of Jackman, Dern and Kirby that really lifts the film far above its own script. Read full review
40
Little White LiesHannah StrongFeb 17, 2023
Even the magnetic likes of Jackman, Dern and Kirby are wasted here, to the extent that by the time The Son reaches its miserable, cloying foregone conclusion, it’s a relief to be free of the uninspired direction and paint-by-numbers interrogation of a subject that deserves much more depth. 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
20
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 16, 2023
The Son is an ugly, blaring question mark of a film, and inexplicably terrible considering the talent involved. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsFeb 14, 2023
Robustly acted by a superb cast and with some beautiful moments, this follow-up to The Father nevertheless feels less mature and less sure of itself. Read full review
50
Film ThreatAlan NgFeb 6, 2023
This feels like a high-budget television drama. Let’s face it, Jackman, Dern, and Kirby can elevate pedestrian dialogue, but they deserve higher quality work for their talent. Read full review
20
UproxxVince ManciniJan 23, 2023
The Son plays disturbingly like an obtuse memoir written by a deadbeat dad who, try as he might, can’t figure out why his clinically depressed son’s vibes are so bad. Read full review
42
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 23, 2023
With The Son, Zeller is trying to bring the same sincerity he brought to The Father into his second film, and instead, The Son unfortunately feels false throughout. Read full review
35
ABC NewsPeter TraversJan 20, 2023
Hugh Jackman acts his heart out as a parent unable to cope with his clinically depressed son, but even he can’t save this poor relation to The Father from descending into two hours of misery porn. Read full review
30
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJan 19, 2023
The Son is a film that is very cruel to its characters, and by extension to its long-suffering audience. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJan 19, 2023
The film is moving. It’s also a bit reductive. The flaw is in the way that one enables the other. Read full review
50
Original-CinKaren GordonJan 19, 2023
Writer-director Florian Zeller is aiming to go deeper here, and brings a lot of emotional and psychological complexity to the story. The film has depth and sincerity. Despite that and the excellent work of its cast —led by Hugh Jackman in a fine performance — the film stalls and falters midway through. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 19, 2023
The Son is so concerned with trying to get an emotional rise out of the audience, to choke us with its pathos, that it fails to create believable three-dimensional characters. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicKimi RobinsonJan 19, 2023
It’s too bad that these maternal figures aren’t given much more to do except worry about their progeny in “The Son.” Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 18, 2023
Mawkish, obvious and manipulative, “The Son” is, quite simply, a disappointment, from its pat setup to its equally false — and, quite frankly, cruel — resolution. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 18, 2023
Given that director and co-writer Florian Zeller’s “The Father” was a powerful and nuanced and creatively presented original work with Anthony Hopkins winning an Oscar for his moving portrayal of a man with advancing dementia, it’s truly shocking how Zeller’s “The Son” is such a tone-deaf, emotionally manipulative, leaden stumble into the abyss. 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
0
Austin ChronicleTrace SauveurDec 19, 2022
There are no astute or emotionally resonating takeaways to be had about the pain of depression, just stock melodrama with a cautionary-tale climax that feels desperate to shock. 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
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
40
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenDec 1, 2022
The depiction of teenage acute depression settles for shallow character development and self-indulgent tropes that distract from a strong Hugh Jackman performance. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubPhil PirrelloNov 30, 2022
Despite the shallow handling of truly important and nuanced subject matter, Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and a scene-stealing Vanessa Kirby go deep with their performances in ways that almost make The Son’s manipulative and predictable story worth sitting through—almost. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comNell MinowNov 28, 2022
Most of the power of these moments comes from our strong feelings about the issues, not from what we see, as the screenplay is superficial and manipulative. 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
30
Paste MagazineRory DohertyNov 28, 2022
Zeller is clearly more experienced as a writer than a director, but even his ability to extract the powerful (if stagey) performances we saw in The Father is missing here, as everyone just insists their lines upon each other with tones borrowed from shouty amateur theater. 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
30
The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanNov 23, 2022
Despite its contemporary New York City setting, The Son seems to have appropriated a midcentury understanding of mental illness, and the emotion on display feels even more artificial than the rooftop vista erected outside the windows of Peter’s industrial-chic Manhattan loft. Read full review
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
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 21, 2022
If The Son lacks the grip of Zeller’s previous film, “The Father” (2020), it’s because the fable of Nicholas and Peter has the brittle feel of a setup. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreNov 18, 2022
The ending may be heavily foreshadowed, but that doesn’t make the lead-up any less exasperating or what happens any less egregious. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrOct 19, 2022
This supremely talented ensemble cast are unable to save 'The Son' from being an overly emotive disappointment. Read full review
50
The Film StageLuke HicksSep 15, 2022
It’s hard to imagine mal intent from the mind behind The Father, a film laced with an intoxicating empathy, but it’s not hard to imagine a lesser work. If we’re giving Zeller benefit of the doubt, it just goes to show how difficult it is for a director to make back-to-back bangers. Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 13, 2022
Zeller’s latest mental health movie is an exhaustingly tedious experience in which you check your watch several times a minute while taking breaks from giggling at the clumsy dialogue. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 9, 2022
The film contains deeply felt work by Hugh Jackman and Vanessa Kirby, but it’s an otherwise drab, simplistic, mechanical thing that wears its workings right on the surface. 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
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
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
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
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 7, 2022
This is Jackman’s movie. He makes Peter’s helplessness intensely moving as he keeps trying, against mounting odds and false breakthroughs, to communicate with a child who remains out of reach. Sadly, that goes for The Son, as much as the son. Read full review
60
BBCSteph GreenSep 7, 2022
It is a flawed film with a kind heart, but a significantly less impressive progeny of The Father's talky triumph. Like father, like son? Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherSep 7, 2022
Classy but curiously empty, The Son may be a spiritual sequel to The Father, but it’s not its equal. 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
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
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 7, 2022
The Son is too suffocated by the severity of its writing and the sterility of its environments for the film’s characters to grow beyond the scenarios they represent. Read full review
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