Sons and Lovers (film)

East Midlands housewife Gertrude Morel, miserable in her marriage, puts her hope into her son, Paul, who has the talent and ambition to become an artist, a desire that is mocked by his father, Walter, a miner who drinks heavily and sometimes shows his bitterness in violent ways. Paul finds his own desires to escape to a different life sidetracked by his mother's possessiveness but also by local girl Miriam Leivers, with whom he has an intellectual relationship that he desires to become physical. Miriam, though, suffers from her own mother's religious influence, viewing sex as sinful and dirty.

Paul's youngest brother, Arthur, dies in a mining accident, while older brother William flees to London. When William later returns for a visit, he is accompanied by his new wife, a pretty and more affluent young lady who lacks literate romanticism or Gertrude's passionate sense. When a sketch of Paul's is exhibited in Nottingham, a wealthy art patron criticizes the work but later comes to the Morel house to offer support because he recognized Paul's potential as an artist. Paul's desires are frustrated again, though, when Miriam rejects his physical advances and a violent confrontation between his parents convinces him that he is needed for his mother's financial support.

Paul takes a job in a factory, where he becomes enchanted with self-actualized and "liberated" feminist co-worker, Mrs. Clara Dawes, who is married, though separated. Nonetheless, he continues seeing Miriam, who finally agrees to have sex with him, which he comes to regret for making her do something that she so disliked. Paul and Clara, though, eventually begin a passionate affair, but it is now Paul who does not feel that he can totally commit himself to her, in large part due to his mother's emotional hold on him. Clara's husband threatens and later beats Paul, who returns home to his mother. She has slipped into a morose depression due to Paul's growing distance from her, and she later becomes seriously ill, something that has been hinted at in her behavior for some time. Clara rejects Paul for his lack of emotional connection to her, but she confirms her own continuing feelings for her husband when he suffers an accident and she returns to him.

Paul and his father come to a kind of reconciliation as Gertrude lies dying. After her death Walter tells his grieving son that he must find his own path in life. Meeting Miriam one last time, he tells her that he is leaving. She suggests that they marry so that she can support him, but Paul rejects her proposal of marriage, telling her that he intends to live the rest of his life without any serious relationship with another woman.

• Sons and Lovers at IMDb
• Sons and Lovers at Turner Classic Movies
• Sons and Lovers at Rotten Tomatoes
• FilmFour