A really excellent effort on a theme that can be very dangerous--in respect to maudlin performance and hack writing. Absorbing and compelling because it is so real. I didn't feel for a moment as though the actors were doing anything but expressing the human emotions of that family, no need for drama, just to be oneself.
It's odd in that one could plot this film out before the various events happened, yet still not feel cheated. As when Moretti sees himself declining to go to the patient's home, and thereby saving Andrea's life by default. We all have had those moments where we've second guessed ourselves over life's crucial decisions, and the way it is was done was just so natural that you didn't feel "cheated" in any way that you had foreseen his reaction, because you foresaw it on the basis of your own experience...you can imagine the exact same thoughts going through your own head, counting the seconds before you say yes, and wishing you had said no...
One comment on the question of psychoanalysis, as many comments seem to suggest that Moretti is panning it. I hold no brief for the practice, but, I don't think that's what he's saying. The people are feeling real pain. Some are, yes, just the ordinary neurotic. But others are the sex addict who, as he says, "is not well", and knows it. And Moretti does help the patients...he doesn't seem to realize it himself, but in the end, the woman who says, "...I'll wait for you, I'll make it my next date" is representative of the good he has done her. Moretti has given the man who has cancer the means to face up to it, instead of bemoaning his own life. You can't win them all, but Moretti learns that he can win some of them.
I saw "Ordinary People" as well. An excellent film, with a great performance by MTM. But, in the end, "Ordinary People" was a story. "The Son's Room" is life.
It's odd in that one could plot this film out before the various events happened, yet still not feel cheated. As when Moretti sees himself declining to go to the patient's home, and thereby saving Andrea's life by default. We all have had those moments where we've second guessed ourselves over life's crucial decisions, and the way it is was done was just so natural that you didn't feel "cheated" in any way that you had foreseen his reaction, because you foresaw it on the basis of your own experience...you can imagine the exact same thoughts going through your own head, counting the seconds before you say yes, and wishing you had said no...
One comment on the question of psychoanalysis, as many comments seem to suggest that Moretti is panning it. I hold no brief for the practice, but, I don't think that's what he's saying. The people are feeling real pain. Some are, yes, just the ordinary neurotic. But others are the sex addict who, as he says, "is not well", and knows it. And Moretti does help the patients...he doesn't seem to realize it himself, but in the end, the woman who says, "...I'll wait for you, I'll make it my next date" is representative of the good he has done her. Moretti has given the man who has cancer the means to face up to it, instead of bemoaning his own life. You can't win them all, but Moretti learns that he can win some of them.
I saw "Ordinary People" as well. An excellent film, with a great performance by MTM. But, in the end, "Ordinary People" was a story. "The Son's Room" is life.