Nanni Moretti directs and stars in this small-scale Italian drama, which won the Palm d'or at Cannes that year. It seems like a pretty poor choice, in my opinion. It's not a bad movie, really, but it's pretty unambitious. It strikes me as a lot like your average American indie drama. Moretti stars as a psychologist who has a great relationship with his loving family (wife Laura Morante, daughter Jasmine Trinca and son Giuseppe Sanfelice). The first half hour of the film is comprised of telling us how content they are - thirty to thirty-five minutes of this boring family sitting around loving each other. Unnecessary. One scene would have sufficed. Then the big tragedy happens: the son drowns in a scuba diving accident. The rest of the film is just about the other three dealing with it. It's all fine, I suppose, but, really, there's not much insight into the situation - certainly nothing we haven't seen before. The only plot point that occurs during the final hour of the film has to do with a secret girlfriend whom Sanfelice has left behind (Sofia Vigliar),who eventually shows up at their door. One of the bigger problems the film has is Moretti's performance - he's really weak. Morante and Trinca are pretty good, however.

The Son's Room is an Italian film that depicts the psychological effects on a family and their life after the death of their son.It stars Nanni Moretti,Laura Morante,Jasmine Trinca,Giuseppe Sanfelice,Silvio Orlando and Sofia Vigliar. It was also written and directed by the film's lead star, Nanni Moretti.

Giovanni is a psychiatrist with a successful practice in a small community near the ocean. Giovanni has a warm relationship with his wife Paola, and they have a pair of well-adjusted teenage kids, Andrea and Irene. But the family's calm is shattered when Andrea is unexpectedly killed in an accident. Giovanni finds it impossible to continue with his work, and blames himself for the death, since he was planning to go jogging with Andrea that morning before he opted instead to take an emergency call from a client. Paola and Irene try to keep their emotions in check, but both find this all but impossible as they sink further into anger and grief. The appearance of an unexpected visitor, however, forces the family to confront their feelings about Andrea. Arianna is a girl who had a summer romance with Andrea the year before, and has come to town to pay him a surprise visit, unaware of his recent death.

Often called Italy's answer to Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti takes a turn for the serious in The Son's Room and acquits himself in first-rate fashion.It is a work of a powerful understatement, artfully crafted and subtly acted.Overall,it is a moving and contemplative study of grief.

....is the worst thing that can happen to you.That's what Nanni Moretti tells in a story full of restrained emotion and a great sense of propriety.

The perfect family : a shrink,his attractive wife who's got a good job,two children with good prospects.Some cracks in the mirror ,hardly noticeable: the psychiatrist does not seem to care that much for his patients,his problems and theirs are worlds apart (best example: the patient who just learned he'd developed lung cancer);he is proud of his son but we feel that he asks too much from him: in a sport game you MUST win.

When the tragedy occurs ,the father realizes that all that has not been said or done will never be.Maybe he shouldn't have treated his son that way .Maybe he should have kept him with him when he was jogging.There's a scene which many people will find unbearable :the moment when they place the boy in the coffin;nothing is spared the viewer and the sound of the nails finds only an equivalent in a similar scene in Maurice Pialat's "La Gueule Ouverte" (1972).The relationship with the patients dramatically changes too.Now what was finally a spoiled big child knows what it is to be in pain.

If they are keen on meeting the boy's first love ,it is that both the father and the mother want to cling to something in the present which can make their son come back for a short while.It's revealing that the three members' first moment of "happiness" happens in the car ,where the girl and her supposed boyfriend make up for the awful loss .

This is a deeply moving movie ,but for people with a strong heart.