Themes of parental guilt and the effects of broken families on children are hinted at early but discarded in favor of genre pleasures, which Carion provides to increasingly formulaic effect.
My Son(Mon Garçon)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, Belgium · 2017
Rated PG-13 · 1h 24m
Director Christian Carion
Starring Guillaume Canet, Mélanie Laurent, Olivier de Benoist, Antoine Hamel
Genre Drama, Thriller, Mystery
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Julien (Guillaume Canet), a father who regularly travels for work, ends up divorced. One day he receives a message from his ex-wife that their seven year old son disappeared. When the authorities fail to help, Julien embarks on a journey to find his son and reunite his family.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Carion, along with his co-screenwriter Laure Irrman, leave things annoyingly unexplained – which would be fine in a poetic meditation on loss and grief that purposefully raises more questions than answers, but is indefensible in a neither-here-nor-there pseudo-intellectual thriller.
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
An endorsement of milquetoast vigilantism that’s not nearly as knotty as it presumes to be, the French thriller “My Son” is so reserved in its storytelling and vague in its details that all it elicits is a yawn.
The film seeks to elevate genre clichés by slowing down the speed with which they’re typically offered.
Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein
[An] engrossing, propulsive film.
My Son finds its cinematic footing in a committed, steady, realism, and that creates a high-wire act of tension and suspense that’s refreshingly clean and consistently effective.
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
It’s got a nervously eerie feel to it that’s grounded in Canet’s gripping turn as a dad out to do good for his estranged family.
In its modest, stripped-down way, it’s a worthy cousin to the genre stalwarts, anchored in the unvarnished power of Canet’s performance, and the no-nonsense approach to Christian Carion’s direction.
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