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Saturday, November 25, 2023

MON GARÇON / MY SON (2017)

Having written & directed a fine Frenchified Hollywood-style genre pic in NE LE DIS À PERSONNE / TELL NO ONE/’06 (think THE FUGITIVE/’93 a la français), no surprise to find Guillaume Canet trying on a Liam Neeson Daddy revenge pic for size.  Hearing from his estranged wife that their son has been kidnapped from a winter camp program, Canet dashes home, only to be confronted by strange, suspicious behavior everywhere he turns: police, wife, her new boyfriend.  And trying to punch his way to the truth only gets him in trouble.  But where’s the urgency?  Where’s the search party & special police unit?  Where’s his son?  Writer/director Christian Carion seems to be trying for Kafka-esque Neeson, holding back info to lend an abstract dimension to well-worn tropes.  But it gives Canet, who should seem sensibly unhinged & off-putting in too righteous a manner, no room to emotionally maneuver.  Instead, we wonder about a second kidnapped child no one pays the slightest attention to.  Too bad Canet only acts (and purportedly improvises his dialogue) in the film, leaving Carion (who also did James McAvoy’s 2021 English-language redo; not seen here) to make so many bewilderingly tone-deaf choices.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  As mentioned, TELL NO ONE is the real deal.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/09/ne-le-dis-personne-tell-no-one-2006.html

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