My son

Genre cinema seems to be too often confined to a cinema that responds too automatically to pre-established rules and hardly manages to surprise us despite some undeniable successes whose effective realization tends to cruelly lack identity. However, some films still manage to surprise us and to propose not only a successful exercise of style but above all a fascinating and perfectly interpreted story. For My Son, the director and screenwriter Christian Carion wanted to return to the very sources of the thriller and gives us the journey of a divorced man ready to do anything to find the child he had with his ex-wife, even if it means resorting to violence and going against the forces of order. Christian Ciaron also delivers here the American remake of his own film Mon Garçon released in 2017 and in which we found in the cast Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent. This time the action is moved from Vercors to Lochaber (Scotland) and James McAvoy and Claire Foy take over the two main roles.

My sound is a real feat for the lead role played with undeniable talent by James McAvoy (Wanted (2008), X: First Class) (2011), Filth (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Split (2017), Atomic Blonde (2017), Glass (2019), X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), It: Chapter Two (2019)).

The latter had no access during the shooting to the script and dialogues that he could hold on to as was the case with Guillaume Canet in the original film. Practically shot in real time, My Son turns out to be a real initiatory journey for the main character. In search of his kidnapped child, he will have to face not only a dangerous child abduction network but also transgress certain laws to achieve his goals. The plot and the cutting of My Boy follow faithfully the one of My Boy and is a remake almost identical. We are therefore far from those American remakes of French films that succeed in surpassing the original and one thinks in particular of James Cameron's True Lies remake of La Totale (1991) or the many remakes of Francis Veber's films. The remake exercise thus turns out to be a simple transposition of the original film with world-class lead actors and a change of location. It would be interesting to discover the two films in parallel. My Son also allows director Christian Carion to use the same technical team as for Mon Garçon, with Eric Dumont as director of photography, Loïc Lallemand as editor and Laurent Perez del Mar as composer.

Christian Carion's clean direction follows the quest of the main character Edmond Murray (James McAvoy) in the manner of a documentary, who will not only have to confront his ex-wife's new partner, who is more obsessed with the construction of his new house than with the kidnapping of his ex-wife's son and the main character. It is interesting to see that none of the characters in this film seems to be a perfect example to follow. Edmond Murray has sacrificed his family to the detriment of his work which is the center of his life, his ex-wife seems to be unable to perfectly manage and raise their son. This fragility that seems to be at the center of the story brings a real palpable emotion and especially gives the film all its strength and attraction.

Shot in a natural environment, the film benefits from an original setting that perfectly reinforces the climate of the film. The director of photography Eric Dumont managed to find the best approach to take advantage of the shooting locations and especially to be in perfect osmosis with the story told here. In this sense, My Sound succeeds in finding all the strength of the best thrillers and proves to be an excellent film even if it is only a simple remake of the original. Of course, we prefer Mélanie Laurent's interpretation in the original film than the one of Claire Foy here. 

There are certainly small changes made to the original film with regard to certain scenes. One suspects that the more comfortable budget for this film has allowed the director to improve like a goldsmith his original film reinforcing an even darker climate and modifying the scope of certain scenes. Certainly, we would have preferred a film based on the same plot but completely revisited with a "more American" thread. Nevertheless, My Son is an excellent film and can be watched with a real pleasure.

While the current cinema too often seems too mechanical to be anything other than a consumer product as quickly discovered as forgotten, My son continues to haunt us after its discovery and above all imposes once again James McAvoy not only as an excellent actor but above all as someone who dares to tackle daring subjects and to get out of a too banal cinema leaving little room for originality (we also advise you to discover the film together). We can only advise you to discover this film on November 3rd in France despite its late release. The film was released directly on September 15 on the streaming platform Peacock in the United States.

My Son
Directed by Christian Carion
Screenplay by Christian Carion, Laure Irrmann
Based on My Son by Christian Carion
Produced by Marc Butan, Christian Carion, Brahim Chioua, Laure Irrman, Vincent Maraval, Rebecca O'Brien
Starring James McAvoy, Claire Foy
Cinematography : Eric Dumont
Edited by Loïc Lallemand
Music by Laurent Perez del Mar
Production companies : STXfilms, MadRiver Pictures, Sixteen Films, Une Hirondelle, Wild Bunch International
Distributed by Peacock (United States), Metropolitan FilmExport
Release date : September 15, 2021 (United States), November 3, 2021 (France)
Running time : 95 minutes

Seen on September 15, 2021 (Peacock)

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