Rating: 
Summary: Andrea we hardly knew thee......
Review: Nanni Moretti's "The Son's Room" is the opposite in tone and execution of the similarly plotted, "In the Bedroom." In both films the death of a son wreaks havoc on the survivors but whereas "In the Bedroom" is fever pitched, almost operatic in style, "The Son's Room," though equally hearfelt and moving, is quiet, placid and leisurely paced.
Paola (Laura Morante)an Art Gallery owner and Giovanni (Nanni Moretti) a Psychologist, live a tranquil life with their two children, Andrea (Giuseppe SanFelice) and Irene (Jasmine Trica) and as families go...their lives are happy and fulfilling.
One Sunday morning Giovanni, with plans to go on a jog with Andrea, receives an emergency call from a patient and must cancel his plans with his son. Andrea goes boating with his friends instead and in the course of a dive is accidentally killed.
All of the three remaning family members react in their own personal way and the film is very respectful of their very different reactions: Giovanni replays that Sunday Morning over and over in his mind pondering different scenarios and even despising the patient who took him away from his date with his son; Paola quietly sobs and refuses to eat or sleep and Irene picks fights with friends in order to alleviate herself of at least some of the grief she so obviously feels.
Even though this siutation is rife with ultra dramatic possibilities, Moretti is not after Melodrama here and by not going "there" adds dignity to both his characters and his film...
The performances are very subtle which is very appopriate in this hushed, studied, humane film about the aftermath of a senseless, incomprehensible tragedy and this particular family's reaction to it.
Rating: 
Summary: "The son's room" will be a classic
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Question The Main Theme Brings About
Review: The happiest possible family shrouded by the drowning of a beloved son. So, not even a psychoanalyst is able to extricate himself, let alone helping the other family members. Everything turned sour and was virtually up-side-down eversince. But if this drags on too long as they do, it would instead suggest that there are some intrinsic frailties in this family, at least frailties in their personalities, particuarly so when the family have enjoyed so many years of perfect happiness. Or is it the other way round, too much blessing is in fact a curse? Well, the generation which had gone through the war or some similar disasters seems, on the whole, to be doing better.A nice movie to watch and the cast is perfect, great cimematography with a lot of foreign settings. But the first part is of the movie is more appealing than the last bit though.
Rating:
Summary: On Moretti and death
Review: The Son's Room by Italian director Nanni Moretti is a dark, simple yet complex and highly intellectually and emotionally challenging film that explores an untimely death and the grieving period that follows. Let us examine ''The Son's Room'' by exploring two themes 1.) THE DIRECTOR, 2.)THE FILM. 1.THE DIRECTOR: I have always enjoyed Moretti's ability to capture the intricacies and absurdities of life in a distinctly Italian manner while keeping a contemporary and realistic approach on his country and culture of origin. Most of his films take place in Rome yet we are not offered shots of the Colloseam, the Spanish Steps or the Vatican and none of the characters in his films are seen strolling on Piazza Navonna or any other Roman touristic landmark or hot-spot that appeal to an international movie-gowing audience. In all of his films we are offered another perspective on life in the eternal city one that involve vespas, brand-name clothing, ''in-victa''backpacks, record-stores, fast-food chains, etc etc etc. Moretti's films offer us a view of Italians in their every day lives, the male playboys, hopeless-romantics or buffoons and dark haired sultry and naive female love interests are either absent or relegated to an inferior role. THE FILM: The Son's Room offers an in-dept examination of the frustration and confusion that follows the tragic death of a familly member. Families struck by such an unfortunate tragedy find themselves in an unenviable state of shock and are unwillingly condemed to replay the circumstances surrounding the person's death in their minds on a quasi constant basis. Comming to grip with the reality that it is impossible to re-alterate the past consistutes the biggest step towards recovery from grief, especially for those who have suffered through the death of a loved one who has passed away in a tragic and unexpected manner. Moretti excells at exploring this concept in this film. A film that is definitely worth seeing and that should not be limited to an art-house crowd.
Rating:
Summary: On Moretti and death
Review: The Son's Room by Italian director Nanni Moretti is a dark, simple yet complex and highly intellectually and emotionally challenging film that explores an untimely death and the grieving period that follows. Let us examine ''The Son's Room'' by exploring two themes 1.) THE DIRECTOR, 2.)THE FILM. 1.THE DIRECTOR: I have always enjoyed Moretti's ability to capture the intricacies and absurdities of life in a distinctly Italian manner while keeping a contemporary and realistic approach on his country and culture of origin. Most of his films take place in Rome yet we are not offered shots of the Colloseam, the Spanish Steps or the Vatican and none of the characters in his films are seen strolling on Piazza Navonna or any other Roman touristic landmark or hot-spot that appeal to an international movie-gowing audience. In all of his films we are offered another perspective on life in the eternal city one that involve vespas, brand-name clothing, ''in-victa''backpacks, record-stores, fast-food chains, etc etc etc. Moretti's films offer us a view of Italians in their every day lives, the male playboys, hopeless-romantics or buffoons and dark haired sultry and naive female love interests are either absent or relegated to an inferior role. THE FILM: The Son's Room offers an in-dept examination of the frustration and confusion that follows the tragic death of a familly member. Families struck by such an unfortunate tragedy find themselves in an unenviable state of shock and are unwillingly condemed to replay the circumstances surrounding the person's death in their minds on a quasi constant basis. Comming to grip with the reality that it is impossible to re-alterate the past consistutes the biggest step towards recovery from grief, especially for those who have suffered through the death of a loved one who has passed away in a tragic and unexpected manner. Moretti excells at exploring this concept in this film. A film that is definitely worth seeing and that should not be limited to an art-house crowd.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthy but predictable.
Review: There is a circular neatness about 'The Son's Room' that belies its subject, the effects on a middle-class family of a teenage son's death. There are no expressionistic flourishes here to 'explain' the slowly disintegrating mindset of the mourners - framing remains methodical and clear; characters, setting and narrative logic continue to be coherent. At times, it can feel like watching a demonstration of the six steps (or whatever) of grief - shock, anger, denial, resignation etc. It's all so well-mannered, ordered and predictable that even the one vaguely violent outburst, the father complaining about the chipped dishes, fits in perfectly with the film's running motif of cracks, splits, flaws, and the attempts to glue them back together without anyone noticing them, begun menacingly with the son's theft. With the exception of some lighening-quick flashbacks and imaginings, the film rarely gets into the minds of the characters - we watch them grieving, we listen to them articulate their grief, but we are kept at a remove, like a psychoanalyst listening to his patients. This method might sound alienating - although it mercfully avoids the mawkish - but it fits in with the film's theme. This theme is not bereavement, but the unknowability of others. Morretti's portrait of his perfect middle-class family might seem unforgivably soft - they are so likable, wealthy, attractive, intelligent, loving, humorous, understanding, talented etc. But despite many scenes in which they spend time together, there seems to be some indefinable block. The very whiteness of their perfect home seems sterile, and there is something ominous about the father's dreamlike wandering down its corridors early on. Like Henry James' cracked 'Golden Bowl', there is an unacknowledged malaise, some deep-rooted, but hidden flaw beneath all this affluence, soemthing that drains the son of his teenage ambition, or makes the father so detached from his job. He listens to countless stories every day as a psychoanalyst, but he can't get beyond the surface, beyond people as caricatures. He can't even acknowledge his children's inner lives, and so is surprised at every post-mortem revelation. It is perhaps no accident that the son dies deep-sea diving - it seems going beneath the surface in such a world is fatal. I know many people have found 'The Son's Room' incredibly moving, but I remained stubbornly disengaged. Maybe I resented yet another story about poor little rich (white) girls and guys; maybe I found Nicola Piovani's miramaxy/Oscar-tugging score off-putting. My favourite recent films about grief - Almodovar's 'All About My Mother' and Ozon's 'Under The Sand' show grief as disruptive, perverse, unpredictable, dissolving: violently world-changing and worldview-shattering, but also, perhaps, a liberating journey. There is none of this danger, this sense of an entire world collapsing, in 'The Son's Room'. Immediately after the accident, the father goes to a funfair, perhaps hoping that lunging sensations will shake his numbness. But the film remains impeccably polite. The sequence with the son's secret girlfriend, though, is so lovely, rich, unexpected and beautifully acted, perhaps the film might reward another viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Less is More
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Less is More
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Meditation on Life and Death...and Grief and Love, the Works
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Nanni Moretti's "La stanza del figlio"
Review: 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.
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