Fathers & Sons (1992 film)

Fathers & Sons is a 1992 American crime drama film written and directed by Paul Mones and starring Jeff Goldblum, Rory Cochrane, Rosanna Arquette, Natasha Gregson Wagner and Famke Janssen (in her film debut). The film is about the connection between a father and son complicated by the foibles of a serial killer and the interactions of a psychic.

The film premiered at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, and also won the Audience Award at the Deauville Film Festival. The film was entered into the 18th Moscow International Film Festival.

Plot
Max Fish is a failed, reclusive film director who has moved to the small New Jersey seaside town of Belmar from New York City with his wife and son, Ed. When his wife dies, he is left to raise his son on his own. Max opens up a bookstore and becomes involved in marathon running. He also participates in a local theater production of a Don Quixote play. However, he is struggling in his parental role, as Ed is becoming increasingly involved in drug usage, sex, and gang violence. Max also battles his own alcohol addiction as well as guilt over his wife's death.

The chasm between father and son seems to be growing despite Max's best efforts. During Max's morning jogs, he routinely passes by a psychic. The psychic tells him that one night a serial killer will attack Ed on the beach. Ed continues to ignore the advice of his father and seems increasingly beyond hope of redemption in the eyes of society, but when he prevents the murder of a rival gang member, he shows potential for betterment. A serial killer, dubbed the "Shore Killer", does indeed descend on the town as the psychic predicted, but Max ends up saving his son before the killer can strike.

Release
Fathers & Sons premiered at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. It received a limited theatrical release on November 6, 1992.

Critical reception
In a negative review, Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called the film a "goopy bonding movie." Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle was more positive, writing "Though its screenplay is at times too preciously poetic (borrowing the title Fathers and Sons from Turgenev's great novel gives you some idea of this movie's ambitions), it also manages to make palpable some of the unspoken distances and connections between people." Baumgarten praised the cast, but critiqued the script and the subplot about the Shore Killer. Janet Maslin of The New York Times also criticized the serial killer plot line, but wrote the film "really rises to the subject of substance abuse, with a sequence that crosscuts Ed's drug experimentation with Max's efforts to resist drinking", and "Mr. Goldblum brings gentleness and intensity to a character who might otherwise be entirely insufferable".