Son of a Gun (2014, Cinema) – For my money there’s only one stellar film that’s been produced in Australia. For that, you’ll have to visit my best of 2014 list to see which one I’m talking about. With Son of a Gun we turn to first time feature-length writer/director Julius Avery as we watch a young pup JR, fresh in prison for a short time, befriending Ewan McGregor’s hardened inmate, Brendan. Once JR is out, he return a favour to Brendan. He has to break him and a couple of his mates out from the outside. After this event goes fairly smoothly, young JR is involved in a seemingly endless series of hard core heists and also a relationship with a kingpin’s bit-on-the-side. Jumping from a bunch of shorts and into the endless waters of heists and mobsters must have been a daunting task for writer/director Avery. He’s managed to pull it off admirably. In Brenton Thwaites (who plays JR) he has found an unwashed, wet-behind-the-ears raw talent. He’s perfect pickings for the naïve youngster and develops a rather catchy arc to his character by the time the movie is finished. Somewhat miscast, however, is Ewan McGregor as the hard nut Brendan. I’m not sure how this plays out in antipodean waters, but for my money at least, McGregor doesn’t quite possess the violent temperament I’d expect from a prison yo-yoer. He has a charismatic and charming side, sure, but whenever he’s asked to be scary it just doesn’t work. Maybe the days of Trainspotting – and those God-awful Star Wars prequels – are an altogether difficult stink to brush off even years after the fact. And he’s the only one with a mild Scots accent in amongst the rest of the Aussies. Strange. For a relatively inexpensive movie, the production values are incredibly strong. Some rather luscious locales pepper the script and everyone on board certainly looks the part. There’s a suspenseful drag car race sewing acts II and III together which lends the film a certain difference to other heist movies. It’s one third prison drama and two parts heist. Things sort of come full circle without giving anything away – which makes the events almost poetic up to a point. It’s certainly nothing new but it does what it does well, and with a bit of trimming here and there may have been issued with a higher score. I look forward to Avery’s next outing; here’s hoping it’s more disciplined, more risky and slightly more appropriately cast. (6/10)
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 01:21:19 +0000
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