Share
Clip description
Joe (Clive Owen) enters the bedroom of his eldest son Harry (George MacKay), who has recently arrived from the UK. Joe starts talking about his relationship with Harry’s mother (Joe’s first wife). They discuss the break-up, which Joe justifies as being done for Harry’s sake. Harry starts to ask his dad a question but Joe cuts him off, assuming that he’s going to ask if his parents will get back together.
Curator’s notes
Joe is trying to be sensitive, honest and intimate with Harry, whom he abandoned along with his mother to go live in Australia with Katy (who was then pregnant with Artie). They start to make some headway as they discuss why Joe left the marriage, but when Harry hesitantly prepares to ask a question, his father interrupts. This is a subtle but key moment in the script – a sign of the distance that Joe still has to travel before he’s to become the understanding father he wants to be.
