Unsane stories about depression and mental health

At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) screening for Florian Zeller’s The Son, starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby and Zen McGrath, Jackman told the audience he hopes the story starts a conversation we “desperately” need to have around mental health.

While that’s certainly true, The Son The story’s melodrama is what misses the mark. It’s a shallow approach that doesn’t seem to be nuanced.

Peter Jackman (a busy divorced lawyer) is looking to make a career in politics. He lives now with Beth Kirby, his partner and their baby Theo. Peter’s ex-wife Kate (Dern) calls him to express her concern about their teenage son Nicholas (McGrath), who’s regularly skipping school. Peter believes he can fix everything, or most things. This leads to Nicholas moving in with Peter.

Peter is determined to get his son back on track, but as we see the evolution of Nicholas’ depression and self-harming, his father is looking at more band-aid solutions for his son. This story focuses on Peter’s father-son relationship, which is played by Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins admits that he was completely absentee father.

“It was a way to open a conversation about something that I really wanted to talk about and it’s another pandemic, which is around us, which is teenage depression,” Zeller told the audience during the film’s screening at TIFF.

Particularly after coming after Zeller’s previous film, The Father, which tackled the story of a man with Alzheimer’s with detail, honesty and depth, this film’s approach to the topic of teenage depression feels inauthentic. It’s proof that just because a story is about mental health, doesn’t mean the narrative is constructive in the way it confronts the issue.

While The Son The intergenerational narrative has been emphasized. Peter, the son of his father and now struggling with his son’s problems, is Peter’s storyline that truly falls apart.

It feels a little old-fashioned to be able to tackle a topic such as suicide in the way that this story is told. It is manipulative and cruel to some extent in the way the story foreshadows future tragedy. This is also driven by the fact that we don’t get to experience a lot of depth with the characters, aside from Peter.

The Son The structure of depression, and mental health, as seen through the eyes different generations with different personal experiences, is quite compelling. But, the complexity of those experiences appears to have been glossed over in the pursuit of an overwhelming conclusion.

While there’s no question that the actors in this film are exceptional, across the board, their performances are largely overshadowed by this weighty clutter in the story.

In 2023, I think it’s fair to expect that depression can be depicted in a way that doesn’t feel reduced and repetitive.

The Son will be in theaters across Canada on Jan. 20,