“My Son”: in this new Prime Video thriller the protagonist improvised all his lines

“My Son”: a seven-year-old boy disappears in a rural town in Scotland and his father finds clues to guide the investigation. (Prime Video)

my son it is a classic thriller set in a small town in the Scottish Highlands. Ethan, a seven-year-old boy, has disappeared during a camp and no one has any clues about him. His mother Joan (Claire Foythe actress who played Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of The Crown) communicates with her ex-husband, Edmond (James McAvoy, from Fragmented), to give you the tremendous news.

The film —one of the premieres that Prime Video was scheduled for March 2022—unpretentiously raises two questions: What happened to Ethan? Why are the police under pressure from London to abandon the search for the minor? Based on a 2017 French title, The searchmade by Guillaume Canette and Melanie Laurentcounts on the direction with the same director of the original, Christian Carion (Silent Night).

Perhaps the most striking thing about this film is not the investigation of the culprit but the fact that its protagonist, McAvoy, he improvised his lines for most of the film, since he was not working from a script. Both Foy and the rest of the cast had one, however, and they knew where the story of my son, while James had no idea how the plot would play out. The actor was only briefed on some basic aspects of his character and the rest of him came out of the creative interpretation of him from the very moment the director said “Action”.

The idea was to get Edmond, his character, to express in the actor’s own body his feelings as a father desperate for the disappearance of his son and guilt for not having been present after his divorce.

There is a great scene in which McAvoy, alone, looking for a clue, starts reviewing videos on the cell phone of his son’s stepfather. His expressions range from tears to laughter as he watches his son celebrate birthdays, enjoy a day outdoors or go to school, and at the same time feels remorse that plunges him into a spiral of anger and overwhelm. But precisely those short videos are going to give him the necessary clues to get closer to little Ethan’s hostages. While he discovers the facts, Edmond is desperate to find some key that will allow him to rescue his son alive.

They accompany in the central roles Tom Cullen (knightfall) as Frank, Joan’s new partner and Ethan’s stepfather, and Gary Lewis (Outlander) as Inspector Roy.