‘Our Son’ (2023) Review – Marriage Divorce Drama Falls Flat

There’s an unparalleled beauty to a good, character-driven drama with real people and real stakes. It requires the kind of overlooked precision and intricacy that looks easy and is oftentimes the hardest thing to write. Director Bill Oliver’s latest independent film, Our Son, attempts to reach these heights with mixed results.

After being happily married together for 13 years (or at least on the surface happy), stay-at-home dad Gabriel (Billy Porter) divorces his financially well-off husband Nicky (Luke Evans) after realizing he doesn’t love him anymore. Tensions between the two increase as they grapple with how to handle primary care for their 8-year-old son, Owen (Christopher Woodley). Both parents eventually have to put their personal wants aside and decide what’s best for Owen, a choice that only becomes more difficult to make as time goes by.

Comparisons to Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and the Oscar-winning Kramer vs. Kramer are inevitable and perhaps a bit too high of a bar to set for any film to follow. But there’s a feeling when watching Our Son that we are never fully experiencing or understanding the heights of Gabriel and Nicky’s relationship, a problem not experienced with the formerly mentioned films. Without understanding what brought these two lovers together in the first place, watching them slowly fall away from each other doesn’t carry the same kind of impact. There’s no lingering love left to make their divorce heartbreaking, just the feeling that perhaps these two individuals never really liked each other in the first place.

Our Son is a fine film that hits all of the expected story beats yet never goes beyond being a standard, melodramatic divorce drama. Both Porter and Evans bring so much humanity to their characters and allow the audience to understand where they are coming from emotionally, even when their words seem harsh and their actions harsher. Some of their heated argument scenes border on being overacted, which is surprising for two actors of such caliber. The more nuanced scenes are the moments when Porter and Evans shine in their leading roles.

While the complex dynamic between Gabriel and Nicky falls slightly flat, the real heart of the film comes in watching how they both care and love for their son in separate ways. There’s a saying about couples being stuck together in life once they have a child. In Gabriel’s case, having a child and seeing the beauty he brings into the world ultimately pulls him away from Nicky. This unique dynamic gives the film its most interesting differentiator from similarly paced and structured divorce dramas.

The film’s best scenes feature a community of queer friends coming together to support Gabriel and Nicky, helping them navigate a tumultuous and challenging time in their life. One moment in particular features Nicky talking with a group of older gay men, discussing their experiences coming out and their own complicated relationship with their parents. These supporting characters are a beautiful way for the film to expand its reach to the broader LGBTQ+ community, showcasing such an uplifting and interlinked network.

While the resolution to Gabriel and Nicky’s story is a nice one, it doesn’t feel fully earned. This is the common pattern that plagues Our Son from the beginning: everything the film is trying to do and say is heartwarming and coming from a good place, it just never pays off. With bland cinematography and all of the expected music cues from an emotional drama set to make audiences cry, the filmmaking doesn’t do nearly enough to elevate what could’ve been a powerful and stirring story.

Our Son is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Vertical Entertainment. The film will be available on VOD on December 15, 2023. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYqXytBPpLY]