‘& Sons’ review: Bill Nighy’s disheveled alcoholic author heads intriguing family drama

Dir: Pablo Trapero. United Kingdom/Canada. 2025. 119mins

Pablo Trapero’s remorseful household drama & Sons, penned by Trapero and Sarah Polley (Ladies Speaking), stars Invoice Nighy as famed, reclusive novelist Andrew Dyer, who invitations his estranged sons Richard (Johnny Flynn) and Jamie (George MacKay) to his nation manor to share a secret involving their teenage half-brother Andy (Noah Jupe). A novel delicate sci-fi twist on the ‘horrible dad tries to atone to his children throughout the winter of life’ story, it sadly doesn’t characteristic sufficient alterations to that narrative kind to maintain its melodrama.  

Staunton gives grounding to a movie with inadequate depth 

Debuting at Toronto earlier than screening at London movie pageant, & Sons is Trapero’s English-language debut. A narrative about siblings reuniting because of the well being of a father or mother, it recollects the Argentine director’s earlier movie The Quietude, which additionally performed at Toronto. & Sons would possibly attraction to these drawn to different dangerous dad films like The Squid and the Whale or Nebraska. Having proved he might take the lead in a status movie with 2022’s Dwelling, for which he obtained an Academy Award nomination for finest actor, Nighy’s transformative efficiency in & Sons might make for an intriguing awards play. 

Based mostly on David Gilbert’s novel of the identical title, the movie shortly establishes Dyer’s chaotic world. It begins with Andy breathlessly arriving residence to tell his dad that one in every of his previous buddies has handed, and his good friend’s widow has requested that Dyer ship the eulogy. An alcoholic with a prescription drug habit, Dyer is in no state to go away his comfy manor, a lot much less write. He spends most days blissed out on his sofa listening to jazz data.

As Dyer, Nighy is almost unrecognisable, buying and selling his clean-shaven gentlemanly exterior for a raveled, bearded look. Although he will get by, notably with the assistance of Andy and their Swedish maid (Anna Geislerová), the retired writer believes he’s dying. He requests that his different two sons come residence. 

Whereas each of Dyer’s returning sons hate him, they every want one thing from him. Richard arrives from New York Metropolis together with his son, hoping to adapt his dad’s bestseller ’Saturn’s Salute’ right into a film. Jamie, who’s a effective artist, desires to doc his dad’s struggling for the perverse pleasure of displaying it. Irrespective of their particular person abilities, neither Richard nor Jamie can exist exterior of their father’s fame and legacy. But, that isn’t essentially why they despise him; that stems from when he deserted their mom Isabel (Imelda Staunton) 20 years beforehand for an extra-marital affair that produced Andy. Now, with Jamie and Richard’s return, Dyer claims he didn’t cheat on her. It was all a canopy story. 

Trapero doesn’t simply reveal whether or not Dyer is mendacity or not about Andy’s origins, however whether or not he’s to be believed is irrelevant. & Sons is about whether or not it’s attainable to interrupt the poisonous cycles mother and father create for his or her youngsters. Richard is 5 years sober after being a drunkard like his father, whereas Jamie shares his chilly dedication to his artwork. These examples naturally trigger Andy—who occupies his dad’s former room and wears his classic garments—to worry he’ll prove precisely like his dad, so he searches for tactics to flee his affect. Flynn, MacKay and Jupe all give form to characters whose anxiousness and insecurities are internalized slightly than externalized. Their work, whereas admirable, isn’t sufficient to make these characters really feel distinctive to this film.

The truth is, the very best factor about & Sons is Staunton. She gives grounding to a movie with quite a lot of screaming and drunkenness however inadequate depth. The movie lacks the flexibility to translate the human toll of dwelling with a egocentric megalomaniac like Dyer into affecting solutions that reveal any truths about us or these individuals. Staunton is the one actor who finds sufficient house to sketch out a wealthy inside life for her character, imbuing Trapero’s risky image with an emotional tangibility that struggles to sufficiently overcome the movie’s broadness.