Ryota Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) is a Type-A architect, strict and orderly. His 6-year-old son, Keita, is biddable and introverted, not the go-getter the man wants. Then Ryota and his wife, Midori (Machiko Ono), discover why: Keita was switched at birth with Ryusei, the child of a shopkeeper and his wife.
The hospital urges the couples to switch. Their conflicted feelings seem natural, and then director Hirokazu Koreeda slowly shows all of them starting to question what is natural. Koreeda pares nature and nurture to individual shots, like one in which Ryota notices that Ryusei chews his drink straw exactly like the shopkeeper.
Little Keita Ninomiya plays Keita with such tenderness, while Fukuyama makes Ryota harsh at first, and fills in each step of the man’s progress with precision. By the end, he’s earned sympathy, and “Like Father, Like Son’’ has earned its right to reduce a person to a sobbing wreck.