Billy Porter and Luke Evans star in heartfelt trailer for Our Son. (Vertical)
The trailer for Our Son, the story of a dying marriage between fathers Gabriel (Billy Porter) and Nicky (Luke Evans) as they fight for custody over their son during a messy divorce, has been revealed.
The heart-wrenching film, directed by Bill Oliver, also stars Christopher Woodley, Robin Weigert, Kate Burton, and Phylicia Rashad and offers an unflinching look at family turmoil as they try to salvage their lives amidst a broken marriage.
The official synopsis reads: “Long-term partners Gabriel and Nicky have created what appears to be the perfect life with their young son. Despite appearances, Gabriel is unhappy and initiates a divorce that forces them to confront the changing reality of all their lives.”
The two-and-a-half minute trailer quickly introduces us to the core trio, Gabriel, Nicky and their 8-year-old son Owen (Woodley) as a beautiful and happy family unit.
But the cracks soon start to appear when Gabriel tells Nicky through tears that he no longer sees a future with him.
“I though we were gonna grow old and die together,” Nick admits wistfully at one point during the trailer. Later he passionately proclaims to Gabriel: “Why are you doing this? You’re destroying everything that we built together.”
Early reviews have shared mixed thoughts on for the pathos-filled feature. Deadline described it as “a beautifully judged human drama that dissects a dying marriage with humour and intelligence.” Conversely, Hollywood Reporter labelled it “too one-note to have much emotional impact”.
Speaking about the film at the Rolling Stone UK Awards on Thursday (23 November), Porter said: “It’s an interracial queer love story about… it’s a break-up. It’s great. And it compliments the music because I wrote a song for it.”
The song in question is “Always be My Man” sang by Evans and Porter in the film.
In an interview with AU Review about Our Son in June, director Oliver spoke about the inspiration behind the film.
“With gay marriage I think there’s a little bit of an expectation to be perfect,” he said.
“Where people struggle with that is that they have to be the perfect son or the perfect student, and it was important to us to show these characters who are not perfect and are flawed, but despite their flaws they love and support each other.”
Our Son will release in select UK cinemas on 8 December, 2023 and release digitally on 15 December.