Whilst the breakdown of a marriage and the impending custody battle that will take place as to whose time favours the child in question has been a reliable staple for cinematic drama over the years – most recently displayed in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and perhaps most famously in 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer – queer cinema has taken a little longer to telegraph such a story.
With his second feature film, writer/director Bill Oliver (Jonathan) corrects the course with Our Son, a universally emotional, deeply personal and wonderfully judged drama that dissects a broken relationship with equal layers of wit and wisdom.
The titular son in question is Owen (Christopher Woodley), the 8-year old spawn to Nicky (Luke Evans) and Gabriel (Billy Porter), who, after 13 years together, are calling time on their relationship. In a move that may surprise many, Oliver’s script – co-written with Peter Nickowitz – doesn’t present them as a couple consistently on the verge, with their first rift seemingly coming out of nowhere, especially to Nicky who, in more definitive terms, would be the “good guy” in the break-up.
After a dinner party where Gabriel feels a little attacked for Nicky’s perception of how he indulges Owen, Gabriel reveals he has met someone and, for a couple of months, has been intimate with this person, expressing feelings in the process. Nicky, naturally taken aback, wants to sleep on his own reaction and, maturely, work through it. Unfortunately for Gabriel, the genie can’t go back in the bottle once it’s out, and not only does he defiantly separate from Nicky, when he tells his other lover of his feelings, he’s left alone by a partner unwilling to make himself emotionally available to a married man.
Despite Gabriel’s actions, sympathy initially lays with him as a character, as the script very much paints him as the more loving parent to Owen. Nicky, though the biological father through a mixture of IVF and surrogacy, throws it in Gabriel’s face regarding his wealth and that he’s the sole breadwinner, and there’s a certain feeling that the film will favour Gabriel’s love over Nicky’s labour. But then a tonal shift, and Oliver and Nickowitz’s tender script looks to Nicky as the overall safer option for Owen, even if his expression of love is a little less enthusiastic than Gabriel’s.
Whilst as a queer story there may be audiences who feel Our Son won’t have any relatability – and, of course, anyone who isn’t a parent may also feel slightly on the outs of its emotional input – the film remains grounded as it details the ending of a relationship and the surprising pain and hurt that each person inflicts on the other in a manner that feels entirely out of the character you believed you knew inside and out. There’s father issues that both harbour that they project onto one another in their best attempts to gain sole custody of Owen, and these sequences where they highlight their own strengths and the other’s weaknesses speaks to Oliver’s strength as a storyteller as we never choose an ultimate side.
Our Son‘s fairness in how it paints both Nicky and Gabriel is a testament to Evans and Porter too. Evans’ effortless masculinity enhances his character when he steps forward as the more dominant presence in the impending trial, but he’s never afraid to appear vulnerable and embrace his queerness; as evident in a late scene where he goes to a gay bar and makes nice with a zero-body-fat-type 20-something and acknowledges the ease and bravery the younger generation have regarding their genderless appearance. Porter, who so often has been relegated to the sassy sidekick in a number of studio comedies, is especially open as Gabriel, refusing to tone down his own flamboyance, but never coming off as a caricature either. He’s incredibly moving as a man who just wants to be loved and never felt as if he got that from the one person he believed he would. Together they are heartbreakingly good, and watching them you believe as if this is a couple with lived-in history.
A story with real weight behind its oft-comedic words, Our Son may not break the mould within its genre, but there’s an honest sense of capturing life’s most unexpected, at-times unwanted moments, and how we choose to navigate through such in a manner that we can still live with at the end of the day. Whether gay or straight, Oliver’s film speaks to that temperament.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Our Son is screening in select theatres in the US from December 8th, 2023, before releasing on VOD on December 15th. An Australian release is yet to be determined.
Our Son was originally reviewed as part of our Tribeca Film Festival 2023 coverage.
