Search - Fathers and Sons on DVD

Michel D. (michelann) from WALNUT GROVE, MO
Reviewed on 6/28/2014...

Fathers and Sons is all about emotions and real people. Everyone can relate to at least one of the characters portrayed in this excellent film because they reflect the reality that is life! Moments like he is not the man I married hit so close to home I cried because it is exactly what I said recently when losing my husband to Parkinsons. The stories told on this typical street are reality!

The Spectrum of Relationships Between Fathers and Sons

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 09/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In many ways this film, originally made for Showtime audiences, feels like a triptych: there are three stories here written and directed by three men - Rodrigo García, Jared Rappaport, Rob Spera - with the unifying thread being that the three stories deal with three families who live on the same street. The technique of creating and producing each story is different, some more successful than others, but it does serve to enhance the concept that no two fathers and sons have the same sort of relationship.

In one story there is an overbearing father, obsessive compulsive in his parenting to offset his own feeling that his father wasn't involved with him. When the stronger parent (the mother) dies, and the man's father dies, he is left to watch the maturing of a son he really doesn't know. In the second family the distant pilot father (a fine John Mahoney) is adulterous, has a crumbling marriage, and tries to understand his gay son's life and lifestyle (the son here being portrayed by Ron Eldard in his consistently fine tradition of character development). How he interacts with his son when his son's first love succumbs to AIDS is the glue that mends his life. And in the third story the cantankerous father is dying and his successful lawyer son (Gale Harold) returns home to prove that indeed he has fulfilled his father's expectations only to discover the longer for intimacy at the end of the father's life.

The families are loosely connected and the name of the street on which they all live serves as the name of each of the three segments. A good idea, a bit of varying showmanship of concept, and in the end it all works fairly well. The actors are consistently fine with some cameos by older actors we haven't seen in a while. There are no solutions to father/son roles here, only a gentle exploration of how important the impact of that relationship is on forming future lives. Recommended. Grady Harp, September 05
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A Peek Into The World Of Fathers And Sons

Timothy Kearney | Hull, MA United States | 10/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"FATHERS AND SONS is a film that attempts to explore the complex relationships between fathers and sons. The film is composed of three segments and each tells the story of three families live on the same street. One house has a father who is uncertain of his parental abilities and is almost afraid to bond with his son. The other is a strong, distant and harsh man who is unfaithful in marriage and can't come to terms with his gay son. The third father is a failure in life who seemingly resents the success of his son. Overall the plots do not intervene with the exception of two sons who are childhood friends.

Each story is told independently. The first story involves a father son relationship between a man named Anthony and his son Nick. The story line is rather predictable. Father loves son but doesn't know how to relate. Things change when the mother dies and the pair grow somewhat closer, but the essence of the relationship does not change. This keeps it from slipping into the realm of the predictable where father and son would instantly bond. The second story is probably the strongest of the three sections involving a hard father figure in the person of Gene and his son Tom. The fact that Tom is gay is probably not the reason he is estranged from his father. Gene is such a hard character it would be difficult for anyone to be close to him, which makes the unashamed attitude of Tom all the more believable. Gene reenters his son's life at a time he desperately needs him, and the results are surprising and again not cliché. The story that could get very predictable is the third segment where a father named Noah is visited shortly before his death by his successful son Elliot. Noah is a shell of a man throughout his life and his difficulties are revealed in the segment.

The film does not explore any new ground in father/son relationships, and at times comes too close to relying on stereotypes, still it is interesting and worthwhile. The fact that it is well acted and moves along helps too.
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Heartbreaking experience

G. Ludwig | Duesseldorf, Germany | 11/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rarely saw a sad story so beautifully told - and it's three of them. A must for everyone to watch - not only for fathers and sons, it's for daughters and mothers too!"