Son's Room, The: La Stanza del figlio

The Son's Room is a sincere expression of family and a realistic ventureinto the human experience of loss.

Writer, director, and lead actor Nanni Moretti selects a topic for his filmthat is rarely given such an intimate and honest treatment in cinema. Whena bourgeois Italian couple loses their son, the main action turns fromwatching the mundane activity of a model family to watching their livescontorted by grief and anger.

Giovanni, a psychotherapist and the patriarch played by Moretti, is themain vehicle by which the pathology of death is explored.

The brillance of the script and Moretti's performance shows through mostnotably in this character's story. The nuances with which Moretti plays therole hints at Giovanni's own ticks and quirks rivaling those of hiseccentric patients.

The smaller character roles serve as architectural supports for the edificeof Moretti's character. One patient suffers from obsessive compulsivedisorder; another is a sex addict.

As a therapist, it is Giovanni's aim to help these people hide theirailments from the eyes of society. Upon his son's untimely death, theviewer is struck by the fact that grief and loss is treated similarly bysociety -- something that is too uncomfortable to bring out in public.Thus, the family struggles with the loss behind closed doors with eachmember withdrawing into their own heads.

Although a common human experience, one realizes how taboo the topic reallyis and with what speed families are expected to move on after such atragedy. One particularly striking scene is a patient visit with the sexaddict. Giovanni informs him that he is taking a sabbatical from hispractice, but offers no explanation. The sex addict is enraged andthreatens Giovanni, who maintains a perfect cool. The viewer is then hitwith the reality that this man shares his patient's shocking sexualescapades each week, but feels it's inappropriate to share his grief at thedeath of his only son.

In the end, The Son's Room puts societal norms under the microscope. Thedirection is typical of narrative cinema, but this allows the story andperformances to shine through. It is certainly one of the most eloquentcinematic portraits of modern life to date.