& Sons

This dramatic adaptation of David Gilbert’s 2013 critically acclaimed novel, co-written by Toronto’s own Sarah Polley — who won an Oscar for her screenplay for TIFF ’22’s Women Talking — and helmed by veteran Argentine director Pablo Trapero (TIFF ’15’s The Clan), stars Oscar nominee Bill Nighy as an aging literary superstar about to make an announcement far stranger than anything dreamed up in his revered novels.

It’s been 20 years since Andrew Dyer (Nighy) has written a word — or left the house. In those two decades, he fathered a child outside his marriage, lost his long-suffering wife (Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton), and has been mostly estranged from his other sons. Following the death of an old friend, Andrew’s sense of his own mortality surges — exacerbated by his alcoholism — so he decides to bring together all his offspring for the first, and likely last time. Elder brothers Richard (Johnny Flynn) and Jamie (George MacKay) reluctantly return home despite old resentments, believing their father wants to soothe his conscience by making amends. Instead, their father reveals a secret regarding their half brother Andy Jr. (Noah Jupe) that rewrites their family history in the most surprising way.

& Sons explores artistic aspirations and mortality in this very original and entertaining drama ultimately playing with universal themes: reunited family members reckoning with old grievances, misunderstandings, and regrets. At the centre of the whirlwind is a brilliant performance from Nighy, pivoting between inebriated repose and dervish-like fits of anxiety, positioning himself as a tragic patriarch who might just hold the key to making things right.

ANITA LEE