The Son's Room

Director: Nanni Moretti
Year Released: 2001
Rating: 3.0

If there's a flaw in Nanni Moretti's Palme d'Or-winning film, it's bad timing. In the Bedroom was released in 2001, and the two have the same 'basic' plot: family copes with loss of one of its own. Moretti doesn't try to startle you with this story development – the title's a giveaway – but where he and Todd Field really differ is in the approach: Field turns his into a tale of vengeance whereas Moretti keeps it low-key, showing the family try to piece their lives back together in subtle, more believable ways (the father, who is a psychotherapist, realizes that he is powerless to help not only himself but his wayward patients, who come to him with their illnesses that he cannot cure). In refusing to go with flash or glitz or high drama, he has made a delicate and low-key picture that is both confident and mature.