My Son

Christian Carion's remake of his own 2017 film Mon Garçon is an interesting but failed experiment. Like Guillaume Canet in the original film lead actor James McAvoy plays his part without knowing the script or having any lines to learn. Working off a basic story outline his job is to react and improvise dialogue with the other actors onscreen who do have a script. The result is ..... well I'd like to say unique but the original film already stole that thunder.

Boring. There's the word we were looking for. Boring.

Edmond Murray (James McAvoy) has returned home to the Scottish Highlands from the Middle East to find his son Ethan who's gone missing while on a camping trip. There's no sign of foul play and there's nobody suspicious knocking around. No-one the police suspects anyway. Edmond's estranged wife Joan (Claire Foy, absolutely wasted) is now married to Frank (Tom Cullen) who Edmond has been instantly wary of but in the authorities eyes Frank is completely innocent. An altercation between the two leads to Edmond's arrest but a police mix up leaves him with a way to start his own investigation. 

It's a strange realisation when you're watching a film that's so dull it makes Taken look like a cinematic classic. Both films share a linked DNA but that's it. Because of McAvoy's improvisational part in the movie story has to be kept to a minimum and so we suffer through a plot as threadbare as a pair of socks you've held onto since the 90's because they were a present from someone you once loved. For whole swathes of the film Edmond doesn't even talk simplifying things even further and in one loooooong scene conceived with scant regard for viewer patience we watch him scrolling through phone videos of his son looking for clues. Deep dives into smart phones is investigative procedure 101 of course in this technological age but it certainly doesn't make for gripping viewing.

Then with clues found we enter a final act where everything should come together with some form of satisfaction but all we seem to get is rain and shadow, with a side order of damp and gloom with earlier red herrings coming to nought and a hint at something conspiratorial getting a one sentence conclusion. It's 95 minutes of your life you'll want back and at this stage of reading this you might be wondering why on earth anyone would stick with this film and there's one answer to that and it's James McAvoy. He's a great actor and it's a distinctive experience seeing the cogs turning in his head as he decides what to do and say next. It's not a particularly memorable performance but it's an interesting insight in the acting process and one we're unlikely to see again anytime soon, especially seeing as this film has been dumped off onto a streaming service (Peacock) that's way down the popularity pecking order. It's not a big stretch to think the money men behind this wanted it off their hands sharpish.

My Son is streaming online now. As experimental film making goes it had potential but the reality is disappointing. Still though, there's some lovely Scottish scenery I suppose.