Notes For My Son Review

And after a lot of breaks (and ofcourse, crying), I finally completed Notes for my Son. 

Let’s not call this post, Notes for my Son Review, at least not look at it that way. It’s a real-life story which has been presented really well on-screen. I wouldn’t like to get into the details or ask the makers or the Doctors any questions since I know nothing about cancer or medicine. 

Also because I believe that some movies are just to be watched. And then learn from them, as much as you can. 

Though I had this idea in my mind that since Notes for my Son is a death story, I wouldn’t be able to handle it especially when the plot revolves around the separation between a Mother and her 4-year-old son. But this film is more than that. It’s about life and death.

It’s about gracefully accepting what you cannot change, no matter how much it hurts or breaks you from within, you still face it bravely. I guess that’s the beauty of human life. We know it all since the very beginning but still we carry hope in our hearts – that’s what keeps us going anyway. 

While watching this Netflix film, I constantly wondered why do we take life for granted? There are people out there who would trade anything to just go for a walk or even sip some water without throwing it up, or just sit straight and have a happy conversation with the loved ones – not worrying about I or him or anyone else not being by the side tomorrow, or day after tomorrow. What a luxury it is to be alive! It simply is. And how beautifully are we wasting it, aren’t we? 

Notes for my Son is a story of a terminally ill 43-year-old woman who is simply waiting for death. In the meantime, she writes notes in a book for her son so that even after she dies, she will always be by his side, in the form of those letters. Also, so that he doesn’t forget her.

This is made so clear by the last line in Marie’s last note to Tomy, and it’s heart-wrenching. It reads,

‘And think about me
Every now and then.’

That just sums up everything Marie would have gone through emotionally and mentally every single day thinking about her son and his life after her death. Death might not have scared her as much as the thought that her son wouldn’t even remember her after a few years. So she did everything she could to keep herself in his memories. 

Speaking of the performances, every single actor has done justice to their role but Fede (Maria’s husband) won my heart. If you have ever had a sick person in your family who was ever hospitalised, you might very well know how all the immediate family simply keeps running around the hospital, sometimes to meet the Doctors, sometimes to pay the bills, and other times, to make the arrangements. You rarely get time to be with your loved one, even though he/she is about to breathe her last. 

Esteban Lamothe, the actor who has played Fede has done an amazing job. The way he keeps watching everything from a distance, observing his wife’s pain, and then also finds strength and courage to convince the hospital management for sedation; that character’s strength and pain, both the emotions have been so well portrayed by the actor. 

More than Marie, you sympathize with him. I must say that this character teaches you a lot. What lesson you learn from him is up to you. Because he has a lot to offer. 

Where to Watch? Netflix