a tale of three fathers

Rather, what I have written here is a tale about three movies.
Each had a central character who was a father whose son had died.
Each father handled the stress differently, but all included isolation from a wife.
The first movie, seen February 22nd, was "The Call Of The Wild". I wanted to see it because I had loved the Jack London book in my youth. I also recently saw a late-night interview on Jimmy Kimmel's show and wanted to witness for myself that there was no dog (which sounded akin to "there is no spoon" the way it was spoken).
John Thornton (played by Harrison Ford) has left his wife and gone north to Alaska, after the death of their grown son. (The cause of death is not mentioned.) Thornton has gone to the wilderness in hopes it will provide a balm to his soul or death to ease his grief. He dies there in the wild.
On Tuesday of this week, I attended "The Way Back", a basketball movie (sans bfrb, as our schedule seems to be out of step). I wanted to see it because Ben Affleck has credited the movie with renewing his desire to act.
Jack Cunningham (played by Affleck) has been separated from his wife for about two years, doing construction by day and copious amounts of alcohol by night. His sister tries to keep him involved with her family, but mostly he's angry all the time, angry that his young son died of cancer. That anger finds a home as a basketball coach, a home he loses to the bottle... but a team that doesn't give up on him. He even manages a smile near the end.
The third movie of this stripe was seen this afternoon. Offered as a free film on HERE TV, "Misconceptions" of 2008 explores the meanings of that word. I wanted to see something a bit different and this film stars Orlando Jones in an interesting story that mixed religious beliefs with morality.
Parker Bliss, Sr. (played by David Sutcliffe) is not physically separated from his wife, but he is emotionally disconnected, and has been since their young son died. He is awakened from his state of grief when his wife becomes a surrogate for a a gay couple, one of whom has developed a cure for the same disease that killed their son. Parker's active in the church, especially in the anti-gay faction, and has to decide should he stay or should he go. In the end, he and his wife are again making whoopee and are pregnant. Very good film, giving its dose of medicine with lots of Southern charm and sweetness.
I haven't sought out these movies about fathers who lost sons...
they simply dropped into my path...
much as the pennies have of late.
Or, perhaps, it's all a function of my puzzle-solving mind being always on the lookout for coincidences and correlations.
Either way, i thank You, God.
(smile)