I watched this movie with perhaps too high expectations. It's not a bad movie, but it's like a movie I would watch on a Sunday afternoon and it never get's any further than scratching the surface of it's theme: a sociopathic child.
Though one of the story lines focuses on what Henry has done to Richard, throughout the whole movie it seems like Henry's behavior was only coming out when Mark came in to the picture. No-one seemed to have noticed anything weird about him before, not even his little sister. Now, a sociopath can be very manipulative, and they are often charming people, but one would say that his sadistic strikes would not have been totally unnoticed, especially towards his sister. It's not completely unbelievable though when you see Mark as the trigger, suddenly being competition for Henry, as Richard was, so OK, the movie can get away with that.
What I think was less forgiving was that the movie was all just far too predictable. Watching the mother standing where she liked to come to rest; you do not need to be psychic to understand that this is the place for the final part. To me; all the clues in the movie were far too obvious. It just never surprised me. An other thing is that it lacked in depth. All the elements are there, but it never goes deep. It's like a bow with the potential for a good shot, but the archer just doesn't pull the string back enough to give it real power.
The acting was mediocre, though I was pretty impressed by a young Elijah Wood. His big eyes are gorgeous, and his acting, compared to that of Macaulay Culkin, really stood out. Elijah was the one carrying this movie and I'm glad they put him in the role of Mark, and not Macaulay. Macaulay did a reasonable job, especially at the beginning of the movie, but like many things in The Good Son, he lost his strength throughout. At the end, he really did not convince me anymore.
All in all, I think more could have been done with the potentially interesting theme of this movie. You don't necessarily have to make a thriller out of it; you could also focus on it being a drama, but The Good Son tried to do both and unfortunately it failed on both sides. It wasn't scary enough, it wasn't dramatic enough.
I just can not give it more than a 5 out of 10.
Though one of the story lines focuses on what Henry has done to Richard, throughout the whole movie it seems like Henry's behavior was only coming out when Mark came in to the picture. No-one seemed to have noticed anything weird about him before, not even his little sister. Now, a sociopath can be very manipulative, and they are often charming people, but one would say that his sadistic strikes would not have been totally unnoticed, especially towards his sister. It's not completely unbelievable though when you see Mark as the trigger, suddenly being competition for Henry, as Richard was, so OK, the movie can get away with that.
What I think was less forgiving was that the movie was all just far too predictable. Watching the mother standing where she liked to come to rest; you do not need to be psychic to understand that this is the place for the final part. To me; all the clues in the movie were far too obvious. It just never surprised me. An other thing is that it lacked in depth. All the elements are there, but it never goes deep. It's like a bow with the potential for a good shot, but the archer just doesn't pull the string back enough to give it real power.
The acting was mediocre, though I was pretty impressed by a young Elijah Wood. His big eyes are gorgeous, and his acting, compared to that of Macaulay Culkin, really stood out. Elijah was the one carrying this movie and I'm glad they put him in the role of Mark, and not Macaulay. Macaulay did a reasonable job, especially at the beginning of the movie, but like many things in The Good Son, he lost his strength throughout. At the end, he really did not convince me anymore.
All in all, I think more could have been done with the potentially interesting theme of this movie. You don't necessarily have to make a thriller out of it; you could also focus on it being a drama, but The Good Son tried to do both and unfortunately it failed on both sides. It wasn't scary enough, it wasn't dramatic enough.
I just can not give it more than a 5 out of 10.