''The Son'' (french: link=no, Le fils) is a 2002 Belgian-French

mystery film A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, i ...

directed by

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne (; born 21 April 1951) and Luc Dardenne (born 10 March 1954), collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. The Dardennes ...

Plot

Olivier, a carpenter by trade who teaches at a trades training center, knowingly takes on Francis Thorion, the murderer of his son, as an apprentice. Francis is unaware of his connection with Olivier from five years ago. Olivier, tormented by the loss of his son and his separation from his wife, develops a slight obsession with Francis. He stalks him home, steals his keys and explores his apartment, whilst slowly discovering more about the boy. Francis looks up to Olivier, seeing him as a surrogate role-model. With this on his mind, Olivier is ultimately torn between hatred for the murderer of his son and the moral ambiguity of accepting this child from a broken home and disillusioned past.

Cast

Olivier Gourmet Olivier Gourmet (born 22 July 1963) is a Belgian actor. Gourmet was born in Namur. He won the Best Actor award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for his role in '' Le Fils'' by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. He also appeared in '' La Promess ...

as Olivier * Morgan Marinne as Francis Thorion * Isabella Soupart as Magali * Nassim Hassaïni as Omar * Kevin Leroy as Raoul * Félicien Pitsaer as Steve * Rémy Renaud as Philippo * Annette Closset as Training center director * Fabian Marnette as Rino * Jimmy Deloof as Dany * Anne Gerard as Dany's mother

Interpretation

Luc Dardenne wrote a comment about ''The Son'' in his book ''Au dos de nos images''. Magali, the ex-wife of Olivier is very astonished that Olivier took Francis, the murderer of their son, into his workshop . She says to Olivier, "Nobody would do that." He answers, "I know." And she replies, "Then, why do you do it?" He answers, "I don't know." And Luc Dardenne wrote "We don't know either."

Critical response

''The Son'' received mostly positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

gives it an 88% approval rating, based on 57 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "Austere, finely crafted, and compelling.". At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 86, based on 18 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Awards and nominations

received the Best Actor Award at the

2002 Cannes Film Festival The 55th Cannes Film Festival started on 15 May and ran until 26 May 2002. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film '' The Pianist'' directed by Roman Polanski. The festival opened with '' Hollywood Ending'', direct ...

for his portrayal of the tormented Olivier. The film received the

André Cavens Award for Best Film André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...

by the

Belgian Film Critics Association The Belgian Film Critics Association (french: Union de la critique de cinéma, UCC) is an organization of film critics from publications based in Brussels, Belgium. History The Belgian Film Critics Association was founded in the early 1950s in Br ...

(UCC).

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

ranked the film No. 7 on his list of the best films of the decade (2000–2009). ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...

'' named it one of the 50 Best Movies of the Decade (2000–2009), ranking it at No. 8.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Son 2002 films 2002 drama films Belgian drama films French drama films 2000s French-language films Films directed by the Dardenne brothers Belgium in fiction Films set in Belgium Films shot in Belgium Walloon culture Best French-Language Film Lumières Award winners French-language Belgian films 2000s French films