& Sons film review: Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton are simply superb
A poignant family drama with outstanding performances from two of our finest screen actors.
Icon Film Distribution
A poignant family drama with outstanding performances from two of our finest screen actors.
Bill Nighy drops a bombshell in this family drama with a difference. He plays Andrew Dyer, a famous novelist who has become a recluse, wafting around his mansion with an unkempt beard and a large whisky.
His adult sons, Jamie (George MacKay) and Richard (Johnny Flynn) are both angry with him and the way he treated their mother (Imelda Staunton), who divorced him years ago.
But they are reluctantly summoned to the house for a strange revelation related to their half-brother, Andy (Noah Jupe). It could be another one of Dyer’s tall tales – but if he’s telling the truth, it could change everything.
As ever, Nighy is a joy to watch, bringing out the dark humour in the script by Sarah Polley (Women Talking). You can feel the complex mixture of love and pain in the performances from MacKay and Flynn, while Hamnet star Jupe does a terrific job as the young man with an eerie resemblance to his father.
But the most powerful scene is between the two greats: Nighy and Staunton. When they have a moment, it’s astonishing to watch: him wrestling with love and regret, her full of old hurt and new confusion.
It’s a poignant depiction of later life reunions, with an intriguing twist.
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