Gillipedia Official Rating: Good, but in a Scottish accent
Here’s a sentence most self-respecting
people probably aren’t proclaiming: I watched a movie streaming exclusively on
Peacock. To my credit, it’s the free version where they play 2 minutes of ads
first and then you’re good to go, not paying for that premium version (although
that is the way to watch the new Psych movie). Recommended to me by a
friend, the film is one that I highly doubt many people have heard of. I’m
talking about My Son starring James McAvoy and Claire Foy.
On the surface this is a pretty simple
film. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, we aren’t given any background and
are thrust straight into the thick of the premise. We’re in a beautiful,
mountainous region of Scotland (where McAvoy is originally from, so it’s his
real accent he’s using I presume), and McAvoy receives word from his ex-wife
Foy that their young son has gone missing. The rest of the film follows McAvoy
around as he tries to uncover the mystery of what has happened and of course to
find his boy before it’s too late.
As you may imagine with the short
runtime, there aren’t going to be too many clues and red herrings here; it’s a
mostly straightforward mystery. The real kicker to the film is how the film
itself was shot. The idea here is that McAvoy was never given the script to the
film, only a glancing overview of the plot. What that means is that as we the
audience watch the movie, we uncover the mystery at the same time as McAvoy
does, so his reactions to everything are completely genuine. This is the kind
of idea that I love and absolutely drew me into wanting to watch how this all
played out. The resulting thriller honestly comes slightly mixed.
I have to point out McAvoy’s
performance. I feel like everyone realized how talented he is after he did Split,
but he is by and large the best part of this film. Foy plays her part well, but
so much of the focus is on McAvoy, and he nails it. There is one moment that
did feel a bit improvised in a mistaken way, but tiny gripe. There’s a moment
about 30 minutes in that calls back to Tom Hanks at the end of Captain
Phillips—those moments of acting that just stick with you in how powerful
they were. McAvoy achieved that. With how little attention and the mixed
reviews the film received, it appears highly unlikely, but I’d like to put my
two cents in and say that McAvoy needs to get a Best Actor nod for this film.
The other side of this is the
limitations. As I mentioned earlier, the mystery isn’t very complex. And it
can’t be either. When your lead actor doesn’t have a script, you’re not going
to throw a bunch of subplots that have no relevance into the mix. So when you
get to the climax and realize that the scene you’re watching is the conclusion
of the film, it leaves you feeling a bit like, “Oh, that’s it?” Because they
figure something out, pretty easily get the clue, and the clue leads them
directly to where they need to go.
As a showcasing of McAvoy’s talents,
the film strikes gold. As a mystery thriller, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
And as a tourism attraction piece to Scotland, it’s absolutely brilliant—minus
the whole boy going missing part of the story of course. But really, there are
some great landscape shots here; however, it is also worth noting that the
score doesn’t always match up. Like this is a serious film with a dark premise,
and the score is pretty light-hearted. On one hand you can think of it as a way
to alleviate some tension? Maybe? Like this isn’t the super dark film the way
the brilliant Prisoners is, but the music isn’t very fitting overall.
Ultimately, you can create an account
for Peacock for free, and that in itself absolutely makes this film worth
recommending. It provides you with a unique setting, some terrific acting, and
an enjoyable watch for a film that most people have never even heard of. And
hey, you don’t have to use that pink fleshy thing inside your head very much to
figure this movie out, but that might be what you’re in the mood for anyways. Oh,
Peacock is also where The Office is now streaming if that also helps.
In
Brief:
- I recently flew out to Denver for a friend’s wedding, and I was able to catch a couple films during the long flights. No Man of God takes place primarily in one room as Elijah Wood plays a rookie FBI agent that develops a strange relationship with serial killer Theodore Bundy. Interesting film, good acting, nothing ground-breaking. Also watched Stillwater with Matt Damon and Abigail Breslin. I only knew a tiny bit about the film but was curious to see Damon’s performance. What I didn’t realize is that despite the title of the film, the vast majority of this film takes place in France. The main focus sways from figuring out how to free his innocent daughter from jail to a relationship he develops with a French theater woman and her young daughter, and that part of the story has a whole lot of heart. And then it comes crashing down with a sobering ending that may seem to fit real life more than Hollywood, but heck n holler, rooty tooty, butter my biscuit cuz I ain’t satisfied by the way this roughneck film ends. It takes away from so much of the film and won’t satisfy you.
- I watched Red Notice on Netflix with The Rock, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. Despite high production values, I see why this film didn’t go for theaters. It double-crosses itself too many times, and only really redeems itself somewhat with Reynold’s mostly funny banter. Not a great film.
- What was much better was Daniel Craig’s conclusion as James Bond in No Time to Die. I enjoyed that the concept of time was heavily featured—hence the title. But not in a trippy Christopher Nolan way; no, more like an aging character finally ready to move on from his 007 life kind of way. There’s some touching moments, and Ana de Armas is criminally underused. The action is great again with solid directing and editing that doesn’t cut away from the action every frame. Not as good as Skyfall, but a big improvement over Spectre.
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