This impeccably performed, engaging take on Kramer vs Kramer delivers a subtly shaded portrait of current gay lifestyles
This poignant drama is practically a remake of Kramer vs Kramer from 1979 – though this time with two divorcing New York-based dads fighting for custody of their kid instead of K2’s traditional pairing of a husband and wife. And like the older Dustin Hoffman-Meryl Streep vehicle, Our Son is a bit soapy and middlebrow, but impeccably performed all-round, led by a trio of terrific turns from Luke Evans and Billy Porter as the two fathers, with winning, winsome support from Christopher Woodley as Owen, their eight-year-old son.
The script, co-written by Peter Nickowitz and director Bill Oliver, delivers an acute, subtly shaded group portrait of current gay lifestyles, from married-with-children types like Nicky (Evans) and Gabriel (Porter), who are monogamous until Gabriel strays without pre-agreement into another’s man’s arms, to older men who never wanted that kind of domesticity, to young ones still having one-night hook-ups out on the scene. And that’s just the guys – there are also some lesbian characters represented, not least Pam (Robin Weigert), Nicky’s family law attorney who is full of good advice.
