Like Father, Like Son

Ratings: 6.6/10

Film Class: C+

Genre: Drama

Like Father, Like Son tells the difficult story of 2 families who had their biological sons mixed up at birth. Raising someone else’s son as their own unknowingly for 6 years, the hospital called one day to break the news to them. This movie challenges your decision making ability and greys the line between what the “right” upbringing of a child should be.

Full of dialogue and rather slow paced, Like Father, Like Son is unlikely to impress. There’s too much of your everyday human factor, set in a rather realistic scenario which any parent would dread. And because it touches on such a sensitive topic, it’s the kind of movie people would rather not watch and hope that such a situation doesn’t happen to them. I, let curiosity get the better of me.

*major spoilers ahead* I sat through it hoping to witness an ingenious “solution”, a promising outcome to repair the broken situation. But I came out defeated. There was no solution, only grievances. It was realistically unrealistic, such that the events turned out to be rather extreme, the upbringing and the lives of both parents. It also portrayed the ugly side of the hospital’s management, though realistic, was too much for an equilibrated audience to tolerate. It was like blows and blows of injustice without a “hand of god” to right things. Furthermore, the film seems to “take sides”.

Just when I thought it was too one-sided, there was however, a powerful quote towards the end, about how a husband and wife is not blood related and yet they can still start a family, which really got me thinking, is blood really thicker than water? Is nurture really more important than nature?

I didn’t enjoy it because I experienced cognitive dissonance. On one hand it seemed like the obvious choice to choose your own flesh and blood, on the other, 6 years of nurturing cannot simply be discredited just by the appearance of “blood”.  Time is equally priceless as well, the magnitude of love is built by time, yet the logic of love runs in your veins.

It’s a melodrama that would make your better days worst, and your worst days better. And I watched it, on a good day.