lasttimeisaw I watched this film several years before on TV, but interrupted and left unfinished, this time finally watched in the Febiofest's special program of Nanni Moretti's canon. The general thoughts after watching it in the cinema is that this Cannes' Palme d'Or winner is lagging behind its award-winning prestige, during the whole process, it is difficult to single out any extraordinariness from it, which baffles me so much. The narrative is rather mediocre, any anticipated set piece are orchestrated in a mannered template, leaves a mawkish and maudlin impression of ennui (Brian Ono's BY THE RIVER is overtly pretentious here). The pain of losing one's dearest is a torment could slowly erode one's soul and drop in from time to time, which has nothing unexpectedly thrilling or soothing from the film's exposition. If Moretti could be ranked as the Italian equivalence of Woody Allen, I divine the chief enjoyment should spring from its script and dialogue, in this case it is just as barren and conventional like as other tacky family tearjerkers, in spite of a hotchpotch of various patients of the psychiatrist adds up some emotional bite while being not too sharp-wittedly different from other generic shrink clichés. Compared with QUIET CHAOS (2008), another bereavement drama starring Moretti under the helm of Antonello Grimaldi, which fetches a 7/10, THE SON'S ROOM is a torrent of tepid water, the warmth it heats up is not as unaffected as I had expected. The whole cast did a good job but nothing attracts any special attention, while Laura Morante's tearless grief of losing her only son is over-stagy, ironically Moretti is a much more natural actor by comparison, after all, the film does not deserve his overstated cachet, nor does Nanni Moretti.

G K A close-knit family unit begins to unravel when the teenage son dies in an accident.The Son's Room is a subtle, gentle study of bereavement, sharp on the distinction between public and private grief, that mixes director Nanni Moretti's usual wry humour with a new-found profundity: the results are both funny and sad, but always lively and inquisitive. Its ending is all the more moving for being discreet and understated. The film was the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. It also appears in Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time at number 480.

Petri Pelkonen This is a story about an Italian family.There are four members in the family; the psychoanalyst father Giovanni (Nanni Moretti), mother Paola (Laura Morante), daughter Irene (Jasmine Trinca) and son Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice).The life of this family tragically changes after they lose one member of the family.The son Andrea dies in a scuba diving accident.Nanni Moretti's La stanza del figlio (The Son's Room) from 2001 is a sad movie that is not supposed to be entertaining in any way.It is supposed to make you cry.This is only a story but this could be real.Tragedies happen all the time.The world is not filled with laughter and joy only.This is a great movie about one tragic event.In a perfect world this could happen only in movies.

jpblondeau The family ties in this film are so astoundingly true to life, it almost brings back the tears... I cannot think of a better film dealing with grief than La Stanza del Figlio, I swear on my own life. You could think that there was nothing new to bring to the subject of the movie, and boy would you be very very wrong. Moretti deals with the loss of his son in such an amazingly realistic way, it's almost scary... And the sister, played by Jasmine Trinca, is also an endearing character. You truly and deeply feel what their family feels - the negative reviews on this type of movie are ill-directed because they are NOT the target audience. They unfortunately sneaked in the wrong theater !!Moretti's best. Period.