Perfect Son [DVD] [2001] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Ryan (Colm Feore) is a successful lawyer who has taken care of his father whilst younger brother Theo (David Cubitt) has excluded himself from his family and travelled down the road of drug abuse and self loathing. It is after the death of the Father where we see Ryan and Theo reunited.

Initially distant and hesitant of acknowledging emotional bonds between them, Theo soon discovers Ryan's secret homosexuality and AIDS infection. It is from this point we see the 2 characters slowly come together, rebond and deal with the emotions between each other and the outside world.

So we enter on a journey of both characters' self discovery and coming to terms with their weaknesses as well as strengths, and it is up to the audience to decide who is the 'perfect son', if indeed a perfect son exists at all.

Both leads bring so much raw emotion to their roles to create believable three dimensional characters.

This is not a movie where homosexuality or death is at the forefront of the story - instead they are used as vehicles to reunite the 2 brothers together and spark their emotional journey to reconnect.

The DVD itself is well presented considering The Perfect Son is a small budget Canadian Film. The transfer is the original widescreen print presented in very high quality where the wonderful use of light in the film can be seen in every detail. A 'behind the scenes' featurette featuring interviews with the main actors and production crew provides additional insights into the film. A trailer, as well as trailers for other WolfeVideo DVD releases, are included also. However the one extra that stands out is the audio commentary by writer/director Leonard Farlinger and actor Colm Feore. Leonard is always engaging to listen to - he delves deeply into the story, filmmaking process and 'behind the scenes' and you really feel as though you have learned something from him, even though the discussion can get quite technical at times. After a slow start, Colm becomes just as engaging and it's interesting to hear an actors point of view of the movie making process.

The Perfect Son touches on many taboo topics in society such as sexuality, death, euthanasia and abortion, however the main purpose of this movie is seeing 2 men dealing with their emotions is a way that is so very rarely seen in cinema.

Highly recommended.

In some hands this story could be a banal soap opera. Fortunately the writer and director and the two male leads bring power, credibilty, conviction, and a total lack of stereotype behaviour to these roles. Colm Feore and David Cubitt ( with a stunning role of Theo's girlfriend defoned by Chandra West) are both extraordinarily fine actors, making us not only believe in them separately and identify with their individual plights, but they have that rare ability to interact as brothers resolving the all too familiar familial estrangement in such a gently humorous and yet ultimately genuinely tender way. Quibbles Departmant: the editing of this film creates a choppy effect, dangling tiny moments of pure scenery or fragments of 2 lines of dialogue surrounded by slow fade in/fade out technique. But perhaps that is part of the mystery of the simplicity of this movie: life is a series of fleeting moments that can often appear as elusive as moths and breezes and perhaps that is what the director is pointing out in this wisely understated film. Highly recommended.

Though I wasn't expecting much from an indie Canadian film (which won their "Genie" award in 2001), I thought the production values and acting were quite good, and the story had positive notes among the sadness of dealing with death and illness.