| Aside from an unfortunate TV-movie disease-of-the-week quality, The Perfect Son is an otherwise watchable film.
David Cubitt plays a recovering drug addict, and Colm Feore is his HIV-positive brother in this simple story of fraternal duty from Toronto director Leonard Farlinger. Essentially, the film looks at the ways families function in times of crisis, and offers an earnest, heartfelt portrait of brotherly love. The story opens with Theo (Cubitt), fresh out of rehab, discovering that Ryan (Feore) is gay and dying of AIDS.
While these discoveries, and certain other factors motivating the plot, may seem a little far-fetched (these brothers are how old, and still know nothing about each other?), the lead performers salvage what they can from the material and make the best of it. Both manage to invest their characters with complex and distinct personalities – indeed, the script works best when dealing with their individual idiosyncracies, if not those of their relationship. Transitions in emotional range are managed capably, though, and when Theo ends up caring for Ryan on his death-bed, it’s not an entirely unbelievable twist of fate.
The remainder of the film is about compassion, and the necessity to take responsibility for oneself in order to be able to offer help to others. Its sensitivities are balanced carefully with a sense of humour, and the film’s pathos never outweighs its hope. At the same time, its rendering of untimely death is tasteful and reasonably unsentimental, especially given the subject matter.
Lose a little stiffness in some of the writing – and polish up the script so it’s less concerned with addressing issues than it is with exploring character – and The Perfect Son might have been a great film. As it is, it’s still a good one that at least deals with issues relevant to contemporary society (grief, homophobia, euthanasia) that are rarely considered in cinema today. |
