My Son

No one does suspense quite like the French. They tend to take it into the most imaginative and least expected places possible. Such is the case with "My Son" ("Mon garcon") a thriller that is so immediate and raw that the anticipation is almost agonizing.

At the center of this tension is Julien (Guillaume Canet), a father whose 7-year-old son has gone missing. And on the outskirts is his estranged wife (M�lanie Laurent), the boy's mother, who may be a victim or a monster; we never can tell.

Fueled by rage and guilt for being an absentee father, Julien sets out to find his child and get retribution. All the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the boy and his potential kidnapper are compounded by our empathy for Julien's questionably heroic behavior and his unquestionably self-destructive choices.

Christian Carion, the director of the Academy Award-nominated "Joyeux No�l," an historic drama about the World War I Christmas truce, ventures into more experimental territory here. He shot the entire film in sequential order, over a whirlwind 6 days, with Canet almost constantly on screen and with giving him only a few pages of script at a time. So the lead actor, a respected director himself who worked with Carion on "Joyeux No�l," has no idea where this narrative is heading.

The result is a movie that is palpably dangerous – and terrifying because whether the character's vigilante behavior is wildly unwarranted or potentially hopeful neither the audience nor the actor really knows. For everything this film misses in story and structure in makes up for in a mood that is equally dynamic and authentic.

In addition to the film, there are a couple of interesting bonuses on this Blu-ray, a making of featurette and a behind-the-scenes interview with Carion and Canet.

"My Son" ("Mon garcon")
Blu-ray $19.98
cohenmedia.net/films/myson