My Son (2021).
“You’re on your own, Mr. Murray.”
Directed by Christian Carion
Written by Christian Carion
Starring James McAvoy, Clair Foy, Jamie Michie, and Max Wilson
The Stage.
Divorced parents Edmond and Joan find out that their seven-year-old son has gone missing from the wilderness camp where he was staying for a week with his friends. Edmond makes it his mission to find out what happened to his boy.
The Review.
A few disclosures before I get into this review - first, this is a remake of the same director’s film My Son from 2017 that was made in France with Guillaume Canet and Melanie Laurent playing the parents, so I don’t know how it stacks up to that or if the story is the same, although I assume that it is based on what I read. So if you’ve seen the French film, this might not have as much as an impact on you. Second, I’m a father of a young kid and I think anyone who’s a parent would agree that the thought of a child going missing - just the thought - is among the worst things imaginable, and although I don’t think having a child is necessary to feel the dread that My Son presents, it’ll definitely elevate the experience.
All that being said, My Son is an easy example of how great acting can turn a simple premise into cinematic magic, and James McAvoy deserves most of that credit. McAvoy plays Edmond Murray, a man who works abroad in the oil industry but comes home when he gets the call that his son is missing. During the production of the film, James McAvoy never read the script - all of his lines were improvised while the other actors around him had the screenplay, so his reactions and responses were genuine, in-the-moment judgements based on what an actual father would do and say. There’s a scene in which he’s watching previously recorded clips of his son on a phone and he exerts such a powerful range of emotions that just watching him brought me to tears. Claire Foy is fantastic as the grieving mother as well, but we spend most of the runtime with McAvoy and I can’t imagine a world in which he’s not nominated for an Oscar for this performance.
I don’t want to say much about the story but will say that it’s pretty straight forward. The real hook is that it’s not a Taken kind of film. McAvoy isn’t a trained killer. He’s not a sadistic man. He’s just a father with a missing son, and he makes decisions that many of us would make. He also makes a decision or two that I wouldn’t make, but I totally understand why he made them in the film. The atmosphere is very tense, and the last thirty minutes are riveting because of how suspenseful it was.
The End.
James McAvoy knocked his performance out of the park. My Son is thrilling while never feeling exploitative. The story feels real, completely accomplishing what the filmmaker set out to do with the way it was made. My Son was a memorable experience and I’m glad that it’s over so that I can finally breathe again.
