The Son’s Room is about grief, but there’s something refreshing about the way it depicts how the family navigates it, and what gets them to move forward to the end. The drama seems like a simple story at first. Starting at the principal’s office where Andrea gets in trouble, writer-director Nanni Moretti mostly observes the family, leaving us blindsided for what’s to come. It’s because of this scene that Andrea is never seen as this perfect hero haunting the narrative. This introduction lays the groundwork for him to feel like a real boy, someone that we can plausibly think of as family. And when the incident happens, and Giovanni and Paola recall that day, the retracing and the subconscious ticks that hint at their grief hits harder than the melodramatic outbursts we’ve seen in other dramas like this. Ultimately, The Son’s Room simply works because it takes a straightforward story and treats it with care.
"There's a saying that a masterpiece has already found its perfect medium. Snyder has done as good a job as anyone could have done. That's a loaded compliment. But as compliments go, it's a huge one."
— Jonathan Crocker
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.
Cannes
2 wins
European Film Awards
2 nominations
César Awards
1 nomination
