willson_x
It's not everyday I venture out of my comfort zone when it comes to film- I'm happy watching The Wedding Singer, a good psychological thriller, a cop thriller, the sort of thing Harrison ford would've appeared in in the 90s, you know, standard movie-going fare- but once in a while you come across a peculiar film that you just stumble across and you give it your full attention, and if you hang on, there is a reward at the end. I've read the other reviews for this film on this website, and they say things like it's "hypnotic" or "surreal", the bad reviews are mainly by pretentious types that use musty words like "Lynchian", or say "I wish I could give this a zero!" words that should end up on a tissue, but somehow end up here. The point is, I gave it a go, and I can safely say its a belter, the "hypnotic" and "surreal" quotes definitely apply. Firstly, is it entertaining?: Yes, that would definitely be a yes. It's got a shed-load of big actors on board doing unconventional performances, there many quirky, messed up moments, a lot of dark humour and a floaty script that fleshes out a distinct dreamy, lost atmosphere, accentuated by the incredible cinematography and music choices that are not typical of any film I've ever seen.Secondly, the cultural merit: It starts off like a pragmatic cop drama, you get Willem Dafoe and his understudy, chatting chit, doing what cops in films do, shooting the breeze and driving to the crime scene like any other day on the job, but then they arrive and the mystery starts to unravel and the story's told in a series of flashbacks told by witnesses, and cutbacks to the "present" where the police are negotiating Michael Shannon's surrender. Like Sherlock Holmes said "Everything becomes commonplace by explanation", and though I've laid out the formula, and reading my own explanation back to myself, I make it sound like an episode of Columbo, the truth is, it's closer to something Rod Serling would've come up with, and then some. What's interesting about this film is that unlike a lot of other killer/cop dramas, they don't really try and make sense of the crime, the crime itself is solved within the first 5 minutes, what this film does is try and legitimately explain *WHY* this guy committed a murder, and then through secondary storytelling methods, the Killer's clouded mind becomes the primary focus of the whole thing, and the voices of his friends and family kind of become ghostly and fading as you start to understand more about the fantasy he lives in and how certain events drove him to do it. The mystery is an unsolvable one, but granted by the end of the film you will have some sort of self-made answer, and I think, lame as it sounds, that's the joy of this film- The sun bleached camera, the hazy L.A. suburban Americana, the unique characters and mini- stories all come together and it just sort of washes over you. It's a quirky indie film like you've never seen, not quite as good as "Paris, Texas", or "Romeo is Bleeding", but it's in the same vein, and whatever it tries to do, whatever that is, it succeeds on all fronts. It's worth a watch, it's sharp, it's clever in the right places, and stupid in others, but that absurdity gives it genuine character, which is rare in films with such big Hollywood actors involved. Really, when a film like this comes out, and it's the closest thing to art you've seen for a long time in modern cinema, believe me when I say it's worth a watch. Don't take my word for it, read up on the true story, it's based on a real case, 1979, murder by sword, Oedipus and all that good stuff, The calibre of actors speak for itself, and the collective interpretation of all involved is worth the price of admission alone. I read somewhere that this was supposed to be a "horror" story, well it's not quite that, and it's not quite a psychological drama, it's definitely speculative fiction, and lies somewhere on the periphery of explanation, between all those genres, a little to the left and then up a bit, then forward a bit more, then left again, then right, then left....
MartinHafer
In many ways, this film reminds me of the Claude Chabrol film "L'enfer"--though I think the Chabrol film was superior because it was much more subtle. In both films, the leading man would be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. But, in "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done", it seems much, much more obvious. Now I am not saying WIlliam Shannon did a bad job in the film playing this disturbed man--it was a lovely performance of a madman. I just think I liked the more subtle leading man, as often someone with this disorder appears pretty normal (though they can be like Shannon's character as well). My advice--see both films.The movie begins with two detectives (one is Willem Defoe) being called to a murder scene. A woman has been stabbed repeatedly with a sword--and obviously this is no ordinary murder. Folks at the scene identify the son (Shannon) as the killer. Soon, Shannon announces that he's got hostages inside the house and the police are forced to wait. In the meantime, the man's fiancé and leader of an acting troupe both talk with the police--giving their insights through flashbacks. All this is very interesting but I had one problem--the guy they were talking about was clearly insane and had been that way for some time. There were TONS of signs he wasn't right--but both these folks acted surprised when they heard he'd killed and felt it was not possible!! Huh?! I think these two characters could have been handled better. I read on IMDb that this is based on a real story. And, if that's true and the man's friends saw he was THIS sick and did nothing, then THAT is truly shocking. All in all a good film (except for the god-awful score)--with the sort of weirdness you'd expect from a David Lynch production and the quality direction of Werner Herzog. Worth seeing.By the way, although he's only in a small portion of the movie, the uncle (Brad Dourif) is entertaining. Also, note the interesting story parallels inserted into the film such as the Greek chorus and play and in one scene as the cops approach with their arms outstretched, its an interesting allusion to Christ--as the killer was religiously obsessed and was talking about Jesus at the time.
