{"id":30199,"date":"2023-02-16T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1785930"},"modified":"2023-02-16T09:41:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T08:41:22","slug":"the-son-director-responds-to-criticism-of-mental-health-portrayals","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/the-son-director-responds-to-criticism-of-mental-health-portrayals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Son director responds to criticism of mental health portrayals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florian Zeller’s second feature is released in UK cinemas this weekend. <\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Florian Zeller\u2019s directorial debut The Father<\/a> \u2013 adapted from his stage play of the same name \u2013 was a huge critical hit when it was released in 2020, earning a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars and helping its star Anthony Hopkins to his second Best Actor win.<\/p>\n

Now the French director has once again brought one of his own plays to the screen for his second feature The Son, but the response this time has been less broadly positive, with some critics objecting to the film\u2019s portrayal of mental health.<\/p>

The film \u2013 which stars Hugh Jackman, Vanessa Kirby, Laura Dern, and newcomer Zen McGrath \u2013 explores a father\u2019s attempts to care for his teenaged son as he is going through a major mental health crisis.<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Zeller said that while he acknowledged some viewers had not found the depiction of mental health struggles to be \u201cauthentic\u201d, he had gone to great lengths to ensure that the film was as close to reality as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was coming from a personal place, so this is something that was not foreign to me,\u201d he explained. \u201cOf course, cinema is about trying to catch something real, so we worked with a lot of American psychiatrists to make sure that we were close to reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people were not certain in the end that it was that authentic because I think that\u2026 you know, we are talking a lot about mental health issues but I still feel that we are not comfortable talking about it, even though we are using that expression all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was surprised in the US, for example, that we worked with this association named NAMI, the biggest Mental Health Association in the country and they were very supportive of the film \u2013 saying that it\u2019s so close to what they are experiencing every day. But somehow, I found that some people had trouble to imagine that it was authentic or real.\u201d<\/p>\n