Nowhere Special directed by Uberto Pasolini from 2020

I was able to watch the movie on Kanopy through my library. It had great reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and they were right. It is a delicate movie and unusual in that regard to me.

Synopsis

The story of John’s search to find a family to adopt his four-year-old son.

Time is already running out for John, whose ex walked out when Michael was a baby. He has no family, so is working with social workers to interview prospective parents. For as long as he can, John wants to give Michael as normal a life as possible. He combs his hair for nits, shares ice cream in the park and watches football games with him, which they will never play.

From an interview with Uberto Pasolini • Director of Nowhere Special

“Death is what makes life important”

Uberto Pasolini: This film is about accepting death, in a way, but it’s about two characters, not just one. The way we go into the story, although not necessarily how we finish it, is from the perspective of the father, in terms of how to handle what is happening and how to hide what is happening from his son. It’s a journey towards understanding his obligations towards him, preparing him for a different future. So yes, it’s about life, but death is what makes it important. This is just an extreme example of that, an example I once again found in a newspaper.

You seem to be able to elicit very tender performances, first from Eddie Marsan and now from James Norton. How do you go about it?
You just get a great actor [laughs]. And then you opt for a low-key, low-register performance, because I don’t like melodrama. By keeping it inside, by making what’s dramatic on paper not dramatic on screen, they make it powerful. It’s just what I like tonally: I like soft things, which catch you unawares. The more dramatic the situation, the lower the volume I want. The lower it is, the closer you get to the speaker. Things just get under your skin better.

https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/392471/