I'm speaking of the older son.
My favorite scene was where the mother slaps him at the school after he gives her the finger. It was simple, yet uncompromising, and brilliant.
Also didn't care for the father and was glad to see him get the rejection letter.
Short film, but brilliant.
It would seem the eldest son had been programmed, in a sense, by the father. I had the same reaction to the son as I did the father as it seemed that everything they said or did reflected incredible underlying insecurity. It seemed the slap following the talent show was the mother's attempt to save her son from becoming like his father. It did eventually work. By the end of the film I felt the son, having had his epiphany (that being his discovery of his father with the student), was well on his way to becoming his own person.
I suspect the father knew that he would be rejected by the publisher. What was interesting to note is that the publisher has written the wrong name on the rejection letter referring to him as Mr. Bergman I think. His fall from literary success was,at that point, complete.
It was indeed a brilliant film.
I would have to watch the film again and look closely at the stationery, but I thought the rejection letter was from a literary agent, not a publisher. I hadn't even noticed that his name was misspelled. Interesting point. In tandem with that, I loved how the school teacher (or was she a guidance counselor? again, it's been a while) told the mother how much she loved her piece in The New Yorker, and yet the father couldn't get noticed anymore.