Customer Reviews

The Son's Room [VHS]

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This past summer I saw in Italy Nanni Moretti's most recent film "La stanza del figlio" ("The Son's Room"). It is Moretti's best film, in my view, and without a doubt one of the best I've seen in recent years. Moretti treats with immense sensitivity the subject of the interaction between different members of a family following a tragedy. Even if not to the extent of that in this movie, Moretti touches upon the pain that virtually of us have gone through sometime in our life and how each of us copes with it. He exposes us to our vulnerabilities, our sense of guilt, justified or not, and to the love that we often find difficult to express until it is too late.
Moretti presents characters with whom we can indentify and in so doing we can share their pain, their struggle to overcome it and we can find comfort in their final ability to get on with life. "The Son's Room" is a uniquely beautiful and touching film. It is fully deserving of the of the awards it has received and Italy can be proud for submitting this work as its entry for consideration for the Oscar nomination for this year's best foreign film. This is a movie that must be seen by all loving parents, and their children.

Happiness can be delicate. In just one swoop, it can stolen out from under you, just when you least expect it. The results can be often devastating - some can never recover. The family in the Italian film The Son's Room has found such happiness, but when tragedy suddenly strikes, they're engulfed in a whirlwind of grief and paralyzed with heartache.

Grief is perhaps the most tangled of human emotions, and the vagaries of sadness, love, and anger that comprise its essence are often very difficult to portray. Luckily, co-writer, director, and actor Nanni Moretti avoids all the usual clichés in this delicately nuanced and subtly acted film. The Son's Room is indeed a moving and weighty depiction of one family's attempts to heal after sudden death strikes them.

Moretti stars as Giovanni, a successful psychiatrist with a busy practice treating the assorted neurotics of the picture-perfect Northern Italian coastal town he and his family call home. Giovanni is a mild-mannered and kindly man, who has a sort of passive and submissive approach to living.

Giovanni also has a lovely family: he's happily married to gorgeous book publisher Paola (Laura Morante) and shares what he considers a close relationship with his teenaged daughter Irene (Jasmine Trinca) and son Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice).

He presides over his wife and two children with a kind of flaccid authority, enveloping them with the same deceptively passive doctoral concern with which he counsels his psychiatric patients. He supports, and heals, less by what he says than by what he doesn't say. He quietly coaches Andrea in soccer moves, while encouraging Irene to be more competitive at basketball.

Perhaps it's an ominous portent of what is to come, but the film opens as Andrea and his friends have been accused of stealing a valuable fossil from the school's Science department. Giovanni and Paola are surprised to find they entertaining the idea that their son may in fact be guilty as charged. However, no one takes the incident that seriously.

If this is the only drama that affects Giovanni's serene life, nothing prepares him for the sudden tragedy that occurs one sunny Sunday afternoon. Called away from home by a desperate client, Giovanni cancels his plans to go jogging with Andrea; and it's a fatal choice that haunts him for months to come.

The accident, when it happens, is so unexpected. The loss giving rise to sorrow, rage, tenderness, and the inexplicable feeling that hope is no longer possible. The family, emotionally fractured, is unable to continue on. Plunged into unimaginable grief, Giovanni attempts to carry on with his life, but bereft of his objectivity, he finds he's no longer able to function as an analyst.

The Son's Room, with it's subtle acting and its pensive, emotionally layered story, remains a startling testament to the delicate nuances of grief. And it's as though Moretti has invited the viewer to spy on a deeply personal event in the life of a very ordinary family. Like a fly on the wall we witness the sadness, the regret, the empty dinners and the overwhelming feeling of whether they could have done anything to stop the accident.

Moretti, whose eyes glitter with knowledge from within a bland, bearded, professorial face, gives a wonderful performance, as does the classy Morente as the beautiful, anguished Paola. While Giovanni wanders dazed through a theme park, numb to the grief, Paola fields a desire to talk about the absent child.

A savior for the family arrives in a letter addressed to the deceased, and when the writer appears on the family's doorstep, she offers the grace note that reminds them of the means by which happiness eventually repairs itself and the unavoidable fact that life goes on. There's no catharsis here, only a heartfelt exploration of what it means to grieve. Mike Leonard August 05.

How can I write a review about this film? The story is so simple, but the final effect is so moving, and the ending scene and its music still haunts my mind.

"The Son's Room" follows an Iralian family living in a local seaside town. Giovanni, father, is a psychiatrist, who sees a bunch of strange patients every day; he is just an ordinary guy who loves jogging or playing tennis with his apparently passive son. But suddenly his peaceful life changes one day when a patient calls him on Sunday. The father cancels his promise with his son, who instead goes scuba diving to the sea. Because of fateful decision, Giovanni and his family are never to see his son again.

The remaining family member tries to pull themselves together, but they gradually fall apart until one day an unknown girl knocks on their door. She turns out to be a girlfriend who shared a one-day romance with their son. They come to know, through her story and photo, one secret love the son did not have a chance to disclose, and slowly come to terms with the grim reality.

The simplicity of the film is deceptive. Some critics foolishly ignored the subtle touch of the film, which is deftly interwoven into the story. For instance, a teacher tells the parents that their son might have stolen a fossil sample from the school. Look how the father, apparently confident in his son's innocence, sneaks into his son's room only to be totally buffled. After all, parents don't know anything about their children. Or, see how one photograph their son's girl friend brings to them reveals his hidden character. The lost son is radiently smiling in the photo, which he never showed in front of the father, who wrongly considered his son doesn't have dynamic energy a youth should have. It is a great irony majestically realized

Rarely has a film drawn me in so deeply that I remain affected days after I viewed it. "The Son's Room" is profound in its ability to create its moods especially in the latter half of the film. I feel that the director's presentation of this happy family, in the film's first half, is what allowed me to feel the result of an impending tragedy so personally. I kept thinking that I wanted everything to go back to the way it was before. I shared their grief as if it was my own.
I also applaud the presentation of an Italian society which is unlike the comic opera Italian experience presented in American films over the past decades going back to the silent era.
The film may not affect you as deeply as it affected me, but I highly recommend the absorbing story that is presented.

Recently I saw this film by Nanni Moretti and I was struck by the simple yet elegant narrative style for a story that packs a lot of drama. A family faces a tragedy that sweeps aside all complacent and comfortable routines. At one point or other of life we might confront similiar devastating situations. Moretti in his characteristic understated tone leads the viewers directly to the core of pain. Beautifully done, never slipping into the sentimental this is a gripping film that will become a classic.

For those who have experienced the impact of an abrupt loss in the death of a loved one, this beautiful film offers solace, companionship, and meditation about the value of life. The film has been so widely reviewed that the story is well known: a middle class Italian family - a psychotherapist father, a devoted mother, a teenage daughter and son - seem to have all the joy of the closely knit family of everyone's dreams. A small kink of a minor crime by the son in this placcid life is dealt with and yet is compounded by an accidental drowning of the son. The effect this loss has on the family, especially the father, is at once devastating but has healing resolutions. The son's girlfriend gains entry into this grieving family and together they find the journey to recovery. Many lessons here: how does a successful therapist cope with his own personal loss? how does a broken family unit re-enter life? how does an unknown but extended part of the family make an impact on this grieving and become part of the healing? All of this is told in the simplest way, photographed beautifully, and acted superbly. A gentle and lovely film for thoughts long after the screen credits fade.

This is only the second Nanni Moretti film that I've seen, and although I know he's known for his comedies, this and CARO DIARIO (the other film I am familiar with) tackle pretty weighty topics of death and dying, how to live in the face of death, the value of work (especially, creative work) and, well, life itself (what does it all mean? how can we make it meaningful? all the big questions).

Unlike the largely autobiographical CARO DIARIO, THE SON'S ROOM is a work of fiction and therefore a little easier to deal with. It is, in fact, quite understated, as many other viewers have noted, but there are suggestions of the inner turbulence each character experiences in dealing with the sudden death of a beloved member of the family. Each member of the immediate family has his or her moment of breakdown or dysfunction. Yes, it's predictable enough that we KNOW they're going to get their act together somehow. But it's just unpredictable enough that we don't know how or when or after how many setbacks.

Some have commented on the Italian "feel" of the movie, and that difference is certainly apparent when you compare it to an American film on a similar theme, such as ORDINARY PEOPLE, say, or more recently, IN THE BEDROOM (speaking of "room" movies). Both American films are powerful, emotional tours de force. Contrary to the cultural stereotype of some perhaps, THE SON'S ROOM, is somewhat reserved in its portrait of grief. Not every scene builds to an emotional climax. In fact, some minor storylines, like the fossil theft, are essentially dropped in light of the larger drama that overwhelms them. In that, this film seems actually somewhat truer to life than its American "counterparts" (if that's what they are).

I found myself often agreeing with Darragh O'Donough's very qualified review posted above, even though his assessment of the film seems much harsher than my own. To me, the film's strength lies, ultimately, in its understatement. But I must admit, I will have to consider more, O'Donough's assertion that the theme of the film is more one of alienation than grief. That's an interesting take, and it may just well be true. Oddly enough, I'm not sure that that's the theme Moretti and team imagined they were addressing. I'm also not sure how much that matters.

Either way, THE SON'S ROOM is one to see.

This was one of the best movies I've seen lately but it is still just a typical Italian film. Italians still know how to get your attention and hold it for the length of the film. How to review it? It is not easy. Life of a middle class Italian family is interrupted by the death of a son. How does it affect all of them? They are all angry and feel somewhat responsible for that but they have to deal with the situation and help each other. The rest of it you have to see for yourself. There are some interesting twists and turns there. All I can tell you that a combination of a very good acting, perfect cinematografy, music, scenes, the story, and etc. made it a very strong, memorable and powerful film. I loved it and I am certain you would as well.

This is a marvellous minor classic about life and death. It is also, more importantly, a film about absence.
The characters in the film are made to feel, really feel, that is, as if for the first time, by the sudden introduction of pain into their lives. This is most apparent in the life of perhaps the most central character Giovanni, a psychoanalyst, played by Moretti. He lives a self-focused, complacent life. Moretti reveals to us the irony of a man who is supposed to be helping others to connect with their real selves, yet who lives life on the surface, detached from himself. It is only after the death of his son and a literal and metaphoric journey into himself that allows him to connect with himself and his feelings in a more authentic way.
This is a moving film. The cinematography is beautifully understated. I loved the quiet luminosity that suffuses the closing frames. Borders crossed. Something understood. A possibility of rebirth.

I wanted to like this film, but the minute I saw that Miramax was involved, I knew it was doomed. From now on I will skip all movies that are related in some way to Miramax or similar others. They all blow big chunks. The only thing I liked about this film was seeing some Italian locations. That's if they were, indeed, filmed in Italy. This was like an American "made for TV" movie, done in Italian. Characters were one-dimensional. Acting was really terrible. Plot was poorly-executed. Overall, it was a boring, bad movie and I kept asking myself why I was sticking it out until the end. I thought it just might get better (which is rarely the case with boring films), but it didn't. There were so many plot-points that were unbelievable and/or laughable, but not worth wasting any more time reviewing this awful film.