The Son's Room (2001)

A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.

Director:

Nanni Moretti

Writers:

Nanni Moretti (story), Linda Ferri (screenplay)

Stars:

Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca

16 wins & 27 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nanni Moretti	...	Giovanni Sermonti
Laura Morante	...	Paola Sermonti
Jasmine Trinca	...	Irene Sermonti
Giuseppe Sanfelice	...	Andrea Sermonti
Stefano Abbati	...	Patient
Stefano Accorsi	...	Tommaso - a Patient
Toni Bertorelli	...	Patient
Dario Cantarelli	...	Patient
Eleonora Danco	...	Patient
Claudia Della Seta	...	Raffaella - a Patient
Luisa De Santis	...	Patient
Silvio Orlando	...	Oscar - a Patient
Sofia Vigliar	...	Arianna
Renato Scarpa	...	Headmaster
Roberto Nobile	...	Priest

Storyline

Giovanni is a successful psychoanalyst who has to put up with the seemingly endless string of trivial details his patients ramble on about. Yet his family provides a loving and steadfast foundation for his life that can even survive a problem like their son, Andrea, being accused of stealing a rare fossil in school. That foundation is profoundly rocked when Andrea dies in a scuba diving accident. Although the usual arrangements run smoothly, the emotional harm is profound. Giovanni begins to obsessively dwell on the missed chances he had with his son that might have saved his life, even blaming his patients. In addition , his wife is inconsolable and his daughter is becoming anti social in their loss. In the midst of this turmoil, a secret of their son's life is revealed that provides healing in a way they never anticipated.

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Plot Keywords:

scuba diving | psychoanalyst | running | loss of son | psychoanalysis | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

As of 2015, this is the last film directed by Nanni Moretti where he also plays the main character. All his subsequent appearances in his own films are either supporting roles or extended cameos.

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Connections

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

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Soundtracks

Le Dita del Piede
by Raymond Carver
Il Nuovo Sentiero Per La Cascata
edizioni Minimum Fax
traduzione di Riccardo Duranti

User Reviews

Cream-colored sweaters signal a dad's anguish

I wouldn't know Nanni Moretti from Adam, but I gather that he is the maker of Neapolitan Woody Allenish movies--lightly self-flogging narcissism-fests. So what possessed him to put twinkly music on the soundtrack (evocative at once of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and Neil Simon movies of yesteryear) and deck out his alter ego in a procession of glum, castrato-evoking sweaters that fairly squeak, "Bourgie, bourgie, bourgie, bourgie..."? Moretti plays a shrink, a conscientious guy who does nothing but listen objectively to a lot of well-to-do people's problems. Or non-problems. Then, just as in IN THE BEDROOM, the Unthinkable strikes, and Moretti is forced out of his shell of objectivity and doing-for-others. Or so the setup of the movie would lead you to think.

A bottled-up, icy person learning to feel, feel, feel? We've been there in Middlebrow Tearjerker-Land a million times, from ORDINARY PEOPLE to THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST. And, perhaps seeing the crossover success of tearjerker Roberto Benigni, Moretti wants to get that ticket punched. Fine and dandy--and the smoothness of the early sequences, evocative of the tranquil languor of a gated "security community's" comfort zone, seem to be leading us up to that point when the buttoned-up bourgeois lets go, cries, learns how Get in Touch with His Whatever. But...the movie never gets there. It peters out, in fact, with an ending so unresolving of any of the movie's issues I felt myself jolted when the end titles came up.

Moretti seems to want to resist the hugs-and-lessons finale that seems to be required by this genre. But he has put nothing satisfying in its place. And sad to say, seen next to IN THE BEDROOM, every one of the details of grief in SON'S ROOM looks hysterical, actorish, false. (People who have just suffered a cataclysmic loss do not cry their lungs out all the time; they do, as in BEDROOM, sit and stare unblinkingly at Craig Osborn's jokes, and do their laundry more often.) One can see why Miramax gave this movie the quiet brushoff; one cannot see why Cannes Jury President Liv Ullmann pushed this movie through to a Palme d'Or. Was she unable to see that this watery pablum is, in point of fact, not like her richly observed movies at all?

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian Latin

Release Date:

9 March 2001 (Italy)

Also Known As:

La habitación del hijo

Filming Locations:

Ancona, Marche, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,887, 27 January 2002

Gross USA:

$1,016,340

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,767,402

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sacher Film, Bac Films, StudioCanal

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1