"Le Fils" takes an interesting premise and turns into an excrutiating experience in which we watch a boy being taught about different kinds of wood. YAWN. Olivier is a dedicated carpentry teacher in a vocational school for boys....(perhaps all of them are delinquents? it's not quite clear). He begins acting strangely upon seeing the name of a student new to the school, who has just been transferred there after being released from 5 years in a juvenile prison. He begins following the student around, and allows him to enroll in his class. We soon find out that his strange obsession is due to the fact that this 16-year boy murdered his young son five years before. The murder has obviously destroyed his marriage (though he remains on good terms with his ex-wife) and he (obviously) suffers from a great deal of emotional stress dealing with boy...though he can't quite pull himself away from him.
Sound good? To be sure, when the movie actually deals with the father's anger over the murder, I perked up and paid attention. Whenever the ex-wife entered the picture, and yelled and screamed about what the hell the man is doing teaching the boy who murdered their son, I perked up and paid attention. Most of the film however consists of long stretches without dialogue, interminable lessons about carpentry, and scenes where the audience learns about different kinds of wood. Terribly slow and uninteresting, there are a few genuinely memorable scenes, such as when Olivier tries to casually extract information about the murder from Francis in the car. There is a hell of a lot of dramatic tension in this scene.
SPOILERS The ending is nonsensical and the ending credits start rolling a few minutes after an exciting chase scene in which Olivier chases Francis after telling him the truth about his son. They then go back to loading wood. To be honest, I would have preferred this to be a revenge drama with Olivier avenging his son's death....The boy killed Olivier's son for a car radio, and I really had no sympathy for him.
Sound good? To be sure, when the movie actually deals with the father's anger over the murder, I perked up and paid attention. Whenever the ex-wife entered the picture, and yelled and screamed about what the hell the man is doing teaching the boy who murdered their son, I perked up and paid attention. Most of the film however consists of long stretches without dialogue, interminable lessons about carpentry, and scenes where the audience learns about different kinds of wood. Terribly slow and uninteresting, there are a few genuinely memorable scenes, such as when Olivier tries to casually extract information about the murder from Francis in the car. There is a hell of a lot of dramatic tension in this scene.
SPOILERS The ending is nonsensical and the ending credits start rolling a few minutes after an exciting chase scene in which Olivier chases Francis after telling him the truth about his son. They then go back to loading wood. To be honest, I would have preferred this to be a revenge drama with Olivier avenging his son's death....The boy killed Olivier's son for a car radio, and I really had no sympathy for him.