Buy tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/thamecinema
Sunday 1st November, 7pm
& Sons
UK 2026, 120 minutes, 15 certificate (strong language)
Directed by Pablo Trapero, Starring Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Noah Jupe, Johnny Flynn, George Mackay, Dominic West
Nighy stars as Andrew Dyer, a celebrated writer now living a reclusive life in his artfully distressed country pile, surrounded by monuments to himself and his genius: books, manuscripts, movie posters, Oscar statuettes, huge scale images of himself. He hasn’t left the house in twenty years; his only company is Andy, his increasingly disillusioned teenaged son, and the mysterious Gert, a long suffering housekeeper. Dyer is an alcoholic, self-absorbed, self-pitying narcissist, an expert in emotional absence and neglect, damaging and tormenting everyone close to him. The film begins with Dyer summoning his estranged older sons, Jamie and Richard, to the house – their erstwhile family home. Convinced he is going to die soon, Andrew wants to come clean about the circumstances of Andy’s conception in the hope of building bridges between the brothers. The family story is that Andy was concieved in an extramarital affair, a relationship that ended his marriage to Isabelle (Staunton), devastating her and her two adult boys. But the story is much more intriguing and complicated than that conventional tale of betrayal and heartbreak.
Trapero’s drama, adapted by Sarah Polley from the best-selling novel of the same name, is a sad, strange and knotty family drama, an exploration of ego and self-loathing and their consequences. It is about the hall of mirrors in damaged families: seeing oneself in one’s children; surviving the mistakes of your parents; the perennial struggle to escape the ties of history and biology. With a standout cast – including blistering turns from Nighy and Staunton – and beautiful location photography in and around Oxford, this is one to savour and ponder over. Watch the trailer here.
Forthcoming films:
Fri 6th Nov, 8pm: Rebuilding, cert PG (mild bad language, upsetting scenes, drug references)
