Writers: Sarah Polley and Pablo Trapero
Director: Pablo Trapero
Not even the presence of Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy can salvage this overwrought family drama based on the David Gilbert novel. An alcohol-drenched author of books with such titles as Saturn’s Salute and Caspian Summer to his name, gathers up his sons to tell them a secret that will unravel their lives. The secret, however, is beyond the reach of fiction that even he could write.
Perpetually drunk and reclusive, and with his literary career behind him, Bill Nighy’s A. N. Dyer, known as Andrew to his friends, lives in a big house with his son Andy and a mysterious Eastern European housekeeper. When he’s persuaded to leave the confines of his study-cum-bedroom to give a eulogy at an old acquaintance’s funeral, Andrew makes a fool of himself. After such humiliation, he decides that it’s time to tell his other two sons the truth about their half-brother Andy.
Richard (Johnny Flynn) is failing miserably to enter the screenwriting business in America, while Jamie (George MacKay) lives with his mother (Staunton), Andrew’s ex-wife. Andrew and his wife separated after he brought home Andy as a baby, saying the newborn was the result of an extramarital affair. His wife left him when she discovered that she was expected to raise the baby alongside her own two sons.
Summoning the reluctant Richard and Jamie to the house, Andrew reveals Andy’s real parentage. Even though it occurs fairly early in the film, it would be a spoiler to divulge what Andrew discloses. Safe to say, though, it’s pretty preposterous. But worse is the way everyone else eventually swallows the bunkum about Andy’s origins.
Staunton & co deliver earnest and irony-free performances, but off camera, their eyes must be rolling to be involved in such nonsense. Only Noah Jupe as Andy comes out unscathed, probably because his character remains oblivious to the Big Secret. He wanders around wide-eyed, enthusiastic to meet his new brothers and teenage nephew Emmett, whom Richard brings along for the ride.
With a script co-written with Sarah Polley, you would hope Argentine Pablo Trapero’s first English-language film would be better, especially with its stellar cast. Gilbert’s book is set in New York, and perhaps something of its modern take on the American elite is lost in a dreary English landscape. The novel also played with form, but here Gilbert’s story is tinged by the Gothic with its portrayal of doppelgängers and murky hints of incest. The film even has a mysterious room; an office by the abandoned swimming pool rather than a creepy attic.
But the film fails because its players take everything so seriously. Apart from the mid-reveal, there are no other secrets, no other peculiarities to keep the viewer interested. Trapero’s film becomes just another story about fathers and sons and ends up being a waste of everyone’s time.
& Sons is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
