Starring: James Norton, Daniel Lamont, Chris Corrigan, Valene Kane
Distributor: Icon Films
Runtime: 95 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2021
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
| 
| 
This multi-national, English-speaking drama tells the story of a 35-year-old father, who is told that he has only a short time to live. He wants to find the best way of making sure his young son is cared for after he has passed away, and the story is inspired by true events.
This Italian, Romanian and British drama is directed and produced by Uberto Pasolini, who also wrote the movie’s screenplay. It is inspired by true events, and is based on the Director’s distilling of factual reports about a father, who went looking for a foster home for his young son, after he was told he had a terminal illness.
The film tells the story of John (Norton), a 35-year-old window-cleaning labourer, who learns he has brain cancer and has only a few months to live. John immediately takes steps to put in place what he feels will best protect his three-year-old son, Michael (Lamont). He thinks a new family is needed for his son, and he considers that finding suitable adoptive or foster parents is the most sensible alternative for him to pursue. The movie was nominated for the award of Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, in 2020, and the film was shot in Belfast, Ireland,
Michael’s mother deserted him soon after he was born, and she left with no explanation. John dedicates his remaining life to the welfare of his son. He pursues adoption or fostering, and with Michael beside him, he looks for ‘the perfect family’ knowing that such probably will never exist. He meets a range of potential ‘parents’ who we, as viewers, silently know he will not (and should not) accept. For him, the thought of separation from Michael is emotionally wrenching. John is uneducated, has a troubled past, and Michael is everything to him.
John’s final choice rings true. Despite inherent sadness, the film sustains a hopeful tone and mood. It targets the difficulties a parent faces when he or she has to explain what will happen when they can no longer be there, and how their child’s life is going to change. John’s impending death is subtly evident to Michael without traumatising him, and the film deals sensitively with the issue of trying to find the right balance among love, support and guidance to cope with loss.
The movie makes it perfectly clear that demonstrating a parent’s overarching love is paramount. John is preoccupied with trying to find the right person for Michael to live with, and the film explores the complexity of fatherhood by emphasising the primary need for a tender, loving relationship between father and son – one which is superbly acted by Norton as John and Lamont as Michael. The relationship that Norton and Lamont establish in the movie is entirely believable, and the authenticity of their portrayals overrides any temptation to appeal to melodrama or sentimentalism. UbPasolini’s direction, and the film’s main actors, deftly weave together the themes of personal loss, family love, the threat of separation, and impending death.
In many of the film’s scenes, Pasolini has a minimum of dialogue, and leaves it to Norton and Lamont to communicate to each other, and to viewers, the nature of their loving relationship, and both do that remarkably well. The film is powerfully acted, and it achieves feelings of human intimacy and separation that are utterly convincing. Lamont’s acting is particularly noteworthy. Michael registers what is happening with subtle body movements, rather than with words, as he sees his father struggling non-verbally to express both his love and his pain.
Adopting a title that is subtly ironical, the movie is scripted carefully and intelligently. Too much is never said. The film explores the morality of good fatherhood in a perfectly simple and straightforward way, and it movingly examines the conflicts that potentially could explode in situations that are emotionally charged. In trying to answer the question, ‘how should a father protect his son from a future he can’t prescribe?’, this poignant film tackles fatherhood in an especially insightful and moving way. This is a very uplifting film, that digs deep emotionally.
12 Random Films…
