Our Son
Luke Evans and Billy Porter play a couple in the throes of divorce in a drama that lacks the depth it deserves.
Christopher Woodley and Billy Porter
The existence of this film is rather more interesting than the film itself although one is firmly convinced that it was made with good intentions. Bill Oliver’s Our Son which he not only directed but co-wrote with Peter Nickowitz tells a story centred on gay life today. The central figures are an interracial couple, one a book publisher named Nicky (Luke Evans) and the other Gabriel (Billy Porter) who prior to their marriage had been an actor albeit not a particularly successful one. When the film opens, they have been together for thirteen years and eight years earlier had become parents to a boy named Owen (Christopher Woodley) of whom Nicky is the biological father.
To have a film centred on a gay marriage is in itself something of a sign of the times but the significance of Our Son lies in the fact that it is a study of a marriage that is now falling apart. In terms of the film’s place in gay cinema it is, I think, relevant to make a comparison with how Hollywood movies came to confront racist attitudes towards people of colour. In 1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was a hit film and, given its support for interracial marriage, it was at the time a brave step for Stanley Kramer to make it. Subsequently – and rather unfairly – it became popular at least for a time to belittle it on the basis that for a black bridegroom to be acceptable he had to be not only wholly admirable in character but as personable as Sidney Poitier. However, the film was clearly a step in the right direction and without it we might well not have had later films which featured leading players of colour who could then take on roles in which the characterisation was more complex and less obviously clean-cut. Similarly with gay cinema, there was a time when to create sympathy and understanding most gay characters were presented in wholly sympathetic terms. Even now there may be some who would question the wisdom of portraying on screen a same sex marriage that is failing. But I would not take that view. I feel that to be able to show a gay couple in this situation and not to hide the conflicts that have arisen is a positive sign. Not only does it make for greater truthfulness in the artistic expression of gay life on film but the fact that such a film can be made without hesitation is itself an indication that the world in general is now far more ready to accept gay people as a natural part of society, to see them as being just as human as anyone else both in their failings and in their contributions to society.
In that context I welcome Our Son but wish that it were better than it is. There is no doubt about the potential here. As the title indicates, the film is focused not only on the tensions that develop between Nicky and Gabriel but on the impact that this has on young Owen. There are natural echoes of past tales of heterosexual matrimonial breakdowns ranging from Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) to Marriage Story (2019) along with aspects which arise more naturally due to the couple here being gay. There is an issue over Nicky being resentful when Gabriel belatedly admits to a passing fling which has by then ended but far more crucial is the different response of the two men to their son. Nicky’s career in publishing is taking up more and more of his time leaving it to Gabriel to care for their home and to become key in looking after Owen from cooking his meals to telling him bedtime stories. Gabriel doesn't resent this in the least, quite the opposite indeed. It can validly be said that his love for Owen has become so strong that it is the child rather than Nicky who is now central to his life. In Gabriel's eyes Nicky has become increasingly uninvolved with the boy and soon it becomes clear that the couple’s conflicting outlooks will lead to divorce. Lawyers become involved and when custody becomes a central issue it results in a court battle with Gabriel taken by surprise when Nicky is unwilling to agree to a 50-50 custody arrangement.
This is a storyline that is often thought-provoking, not least when one’s sympathies for Gabriel have to take account of whether or not the fact that Nicky is the biological father gives extra weight to the claims that he is making. But, as against that, the screenplay constantly feels deliberately set up to make points and, while there is one effective scene in which Gabriel's mother (Phylicia Rashad) unexpectedly points out ways in which her son’s own outlook is open to criticism, one finds Nicky being presented in such unsympathetic terms that the portrait fails twice over: we find it difficult to believe when he readjusts his outlook later on and we realise that the screenplay has failed to explore the extent to which his work has, without him necessarily becoming aware of it, caused him to neglect his home life. Indeed, a case could be made that the film would have been much stronger had some way been found to take account of the couple’s earlier life together and thus to show how the couple’s rapport has diminished and why they have failed to talk about it until it has reached this crisis point.
As things stand there are sounder elements to be found in good supporting roles aided by the contributions of such players as Robin Weigert, Isaac Powell and the aforesaid Phylicia Rashad. But Evans and Porter suffer from the weak points in the writing and from what I can only describe as a lack of chemistry. Given that Nicky and Gabriel are at odds that absence might seem apt enough, but there is no sense of a couple who, whatever the strains now existing, have been together for years. I found myself thinking of the brilliant British film about a long-term a couple made by Harry Macqueen in 2020. That was Supernova and it was admittedly vitally different in that its couple remained devoted. Nevertheless, the dialogue there was so natural and unforced that just thinking of it underlined the extent to which this screenplay appears concocted. It also left me even more convinced of the need to challenge the idea that gay men on screen should always be played by gay actors. As it happens both Evans and Porter are gay but their performances however able are far less memorable than those in Supernova in which the lovers were played by two heterosexuals, Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. Ultimately, then, Our Son could not be more timely but it is a far less accomplished piece than I had hoped that it would be.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Luke Evans, Billy Porter, Christopher Woodley, Robin Weigert, Andrew Rannells, Phylicia Rashad, Kate Burton, Michael Countryman, Liza J. Bennett, Isaac Powell, Gabby Beans, Nuala Cleary, Alfredo Narciso, David Pittu, Francis Jue, Cassandra Freeman, Emily Donahoe, Gil Perez-Abraham.
Dir Bill Oliver, Pro Fernando Loureiro, Eric Binns, Guilherme Coelho, Jennifer 8. Lee and Christopher Lin, Screenplay Peter Nickowitz and Bill Oliver, Ph Luca Fantini, Pro Des Sophia Uehara, Ed Zack Clark and Tyler Jensen, Music Ola Fløttum, Costumes Aubrey Laufer.
Tigresa/Federal Films/Slated/TPC-Universal Pictures International.
104 mins. USA. 2023. US Rel: 8 December 2023. UK Rel: 25 March 2024. Available on digital release. Cert. 15.
