Screening: Our Son

An all-star cast led by masterly sparring partners Luke Evans and Billy Porter electrify this perspective-shifting tearjerker about parenting through pain. When an affair fizzles 13 years into an estranged pair’s marriage, revelations tear asunder an already fractured relationship and leave the fate of their son hanging in the balance.

Our Son alternates between Nicky (Evans) and Gabriel (Porter), offering us two viewpoints of the same domestic conflict. When their relationship dissolves, Gabriel assumes his nurturing commitment to his 8-year-old son Owen (Christoper Woodley) will guarantee him primary custody, but the more detached Nicky is unwilling to let Owen—or Gabriel—go that easily. Battle lines are drawn, each man nurtured and guided by those he loves, such as friends (Andrew Rannells among them) and family (like their mothers, played with gravitas by Kate Burton and Phylicia Rashad). With much to consider, the audience assumes the role of jury: given the facts at hand, what arrangement seems best for Owen? And once Pandora’s box of past resentments is opened, can it ever be closed?