To call the Argentine thriller “The Son” a “Rosemary’s Baby” for men isn’t quite fair to the film’s gender politics, which are ambiguous to a fault, or to its aesthetic merits, which are considerably more modest. But the shorthand does help describe the stakes, which involve a fraught pregnancy and early infancy, and the perspective, which is fixed upon a father who is denied any control over his child’s well-being. Perhaps he is denied for a good reason. Perhaps not.

Now streaming on Netflix, this elegantly structured tease, directed by Sebastián Schindel , begins as the 50-year-old painter Lorenzo ( Joaquín Furriel ) and his younger Norwegian wife, Sigrid ( Heidi Toini ), are anticipating their first child. Months later, when their son is still a newborn, a scratched-up Lorenzo is sitting in a holding cell, where he awaits a hearing on domestic assault charges. Schindel cuts back and forth between the two time periods, detailing how Lorenzo’s relationship with his wife deteriorated and the lengths he’s willing to go in order to reunite with his son.