The Son's Room

Miramax Films | Release Date: January 25, 2002

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

73	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Steven Rea

We feel it, in our hearts. And therein lies the great power of this small, wise film. Read full review

100

Michael Wilmington

Moretti gives us something different but very important. He shows us how life goes on. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

It takes skill these days, if not nerve, to put a vital, happy nuclear family on screen and to invite us to share in every quiet tremor, every gentle jostle and smile of their steady, deep-flowing contentment. Read full review

David Ansen

There’s not a whisper of melodrama or sentimentality in the way Moretti tells his tale, guiding us through the stages of grief with calm, devastating lucidity.

New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo

Wise and surprisingly witty, the film is a minor masterpiece and could serve as a fitting companion piece to America's "In the Bedroom," another superb film about the torments of bereavement.

Meredith Brody

With tender skill, Moretti illuminates Samuel Beckett's phrase "I can't go on -- I'll go on." Read full review

Ben Slater

Moretti's actual direction is always simple, perhaps plain, but this no-frills approach allows him to gently craft a story full of poignant episodes, building toward a melancholy but genuinely uplifting conclusion. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Surprisingly powerful and universal: the search for meaning and small blessings in the face of life's utter randomness. Read full review

Keith Phipps

In the end, it's that reserve that makes it work. Keeping his distance, the director lets viewers see in full the moments in which grief turns the world into a narrow, never-ending tunnel. Read full review

James Berardinelli

This is a superior motion picture -- an example of the pleasant surprise that can result when a skilled director departs from his usual style. By daring to be honest and unsparing, The Son's Room is meaningful. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Not all movies can be stark, difficult and obscure. Sometimes in a quite ordinary way a director can reach out and touch us. Read full review

Rick Groen

Always perceptive and curiously light in tone if not in content -- such a remarkably delicate look at an absolutely devastating subject. Read full review

Ann Hornaday

A deceivingly simple film, one that grows in power in retrospect, as the cumulative impact of so many quiet moments makes itself felt. Read full review

Stephen Holden

The movie's rejection of even a tinge of melodrama lends it a special integrity. Read full review

Stephanie Zacharek

Isn't bold or daring, but it is delicately distinctive; it's the kind of picture that stirs subterranean rumbles of empathy in us rather than flashy, gushing waves. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

The film's closing may be less than conclusive, yet The Son's Room must be admired, at least, for its unsentimentality. Read full review

Michael Sragow

The Son's Room is the anti-"In the Bedroom." I mean that as a compliment. Read full review

Claudia Puig

Stands apart for its raw, quiet emotion and its shattering sense of truth. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

The Son's Room refers to every room this family will inhabit for a long time -- he's an unseen, ubiquitous presence -- but they may learn to lead ordinary, even joyful lives again. Read full review

Chris Fujiwara

A triumph of gentility that earns its moments of pathos.

Jami Bernard

A stately and deeply affecting look at the human condition, told in something like a series of snapshots.

Mick LaSalle

Moretti's performance is low-key but detailed. He makes the psychiatrist a fascinating guy, rather austere and restrained, a Northern Italian, not an expressive Neapolitan. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

While the film is undeniably melancholy, Moretti's trademark light touch keeps it from becoming overbearing. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

I found this film deeply affecting as well. It has a gravity that's independent of technique, and an engaging spirit that's enhanced by flashes of comedy.

Anthony Lane

You leave the film like one of Giovanni's patients rising from the couch -- far from healed, but amused and pacified by the sympathy that has washed over you. [4 Feb 2002, p. 82]