With all the market research and focus groups that drive the movie world, it's rare for something as poorly conceived as "The Son" to make it through the cracks.
Florian Zeller's bleak follow-up to his Oscar-winning "The Father" is only loosely connected to that movie, both in terms of story and quality. The title could refer to either Peter (Hugh Jackman), a crack political strategist, or his troubled child Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who lives with his mother, Kate (Laura Dern), and has not adjusted well to his parents' divorce or his dad's remarriage to Beth (Vanessa Kirby).
Early in "The Son," Nicholas announces that he'd rather live with his father, a sign that all is not well in this amicably divorced, Restoration Hardware world. In short order, there are problems at school and at home and a doctor, who has placed Nicholas in residential care for his depression and other issues, is breaking the news to Peter and Kate that they must take their son's health seriously.
