My Son (2021 film)

Edmond Murray is an absent father who is called to the site of his son Ethan's disappearance. He meets and briefly consoles his ex-wife Joan there, and promptly joins a search party before being interviewed by the police.

After being interviewed by Inspector Roy (the police), Edmond visits his ex-wife's new partner, Frank, and the two begin talking. After seeing that Frank has made plans for a new home for himself and Joan (without bedroom accommodation for Ethan), and upon hearing that Frank has given Joan a Valium tablet to help her sleep, Edmond becomes irate and confrontational, accusing Frank of being responsible for his son's disappearance. He assaults him in the kitchen, knocking him unconscious and calls Inspector Roy to have him look into Frank.

Edmond is arrested but no charges are filed, as Frank is apparently forgiving of Edmond due to his emotional stress at the moment. Edmond is later met by Inspector Roy, who hides Edmond's phone in a microwave oven (so as not to be heard), and informs him that he has been taken off the case without any explanation.

Edmond looks through Frank's phone, which he took after knocking him out, and finds videos of Ethan leading up to the disappearance. During this, he realises there is a car present in both videos, two weeks apart, hidden barely out of sight. Relying on Joan's brother who works in the insurance industry, Edmond obtains the vehicle owner's address, a William O'Connor who lives at an isolated farm.

After arriving at the location, Edmond hears a vehicle approach. Hiding, he grabs a crowbar and eventually knocks out O'Connor, and ties him up to a post in the shed. After an aggressive interrogation involving a blowtorch, O'Connor reveals that he is responsible for sending pictures of children outside of schools to a kidnapping ring operated for paedophiles, who then "choose" which children will be kidnapped. After being told of his son's location, at a hilltop lodge, Edmond drives to near the lodge, continuing on foot to hide his approach.

Joan arrives at the O'Connor farm, and finds another kidnapped girl unconscious in the back of his vehicle; Edmond had not thought to look. She takes the child to the hospital, then leaves when Edmond sends a text telling her where the lodge is, asking her to contact Inspector Roy. She calls Roy as she heads to the lodge herself.

When Edmond reaches the lodge, he sees that three members of the kidnap ring are present. He incapacitates their vehicle, which proves fortuitous, as they were preparing to take an unconscious Ethan away. Edmond knocks out Steven, the kidnapper who was repairing the vehicle. After a game of cat and mouse with kidnappers Alan and Fergus, during which Alan mistakenly shoots Fergus dead, Edmond finds Ethan. By then, Joan has arrived, and the three make a narrow escape. During the escape, Edmond is shot and veers off the road when he loses consciousness. As a vehicle approaches, Joan and Ethan exit, hiding behind a tree before being found by Roy, who takes them to safety.

Sometime later, outdoors and surrounded by water and mountains, Joan and Edmond stand with Ethan as he flies a small remote control quadcopter. Inspector Roy calls out to Edmond, who bids Ethan farewell after promising that he will eventually be back to stay. Roy and Edmond drive off, revealing that the outing had been a courtesy, as Edmond is under arrest for his part in the illegal activities of his company. Roy states that the kidnapping network is being dismantled, with many more arrests pending. He also assures Edmond that the judge will likely take into account the benefit of Edmond's actions during his court cases.

In addition, Mark Barrett was specifically included in the main credits as the stand-in for Edmond, as compared to merely body double or stunt double for McAvoy.

Discover more about Cast related topics

James McAvoy

James McAvoy

James McAvoy is a Scottish actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in The Near Room (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his feature film career began. His notable television work includes the thriller State of Play, science fiction miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune and the Channel 4 BAFTA Award-winning series Shameless.

Claire Foy

Claire Foy

Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown (2016–2017) for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Tom Cullen

Tom Cullen

Thomas Cullen is a Welsh actor and director. He had roles in the independent film Weekend (2011), as Anthony Foyle, Viscount Gillingham in the television series Downton Abbey, and as Sir Landry in the historical drama series Knightfall. He also appeared in another historical drama playing the role of Thomas Seymour in Becoming Elizabeth.

Gary Lewis (actor)

Gary Lewis (actor)

Gary Stevenson, better known as Gary Lewis, is a Scottish actor. He has had roles in films such as Billy Elliot, Joyeux Noël, Gangs of New York, Eragon, and Three and Out, as well as major roles in the television docudrama Supervolcano and the Starz series Outlander.

It was announced in October 2020 that James McAvoy and Claire Foy had been cast to star in the film, which was written and directed by Christian Carion, remaking his 2017 French film of the same name. McAvoy explained during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show that he was not supplied with a script or dialogue, and was made to improvise for himself.^[3][4]

Filming had begun by late October 2020, and filmed throughout Scotland. Filming in Lochaber paused after a positive COVID-19 test.^[5]

Discover more about Production related topics

James McAvoy

James McAvoy

James McAvoy is a Scottish actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in The Near Room (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his feature film career began. His notable television work includes the thriller State of Play, science fiction miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune and the Channel 4 BAFTA Award-winning series Shameless.

Claire Foy

Claire Foy

Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown (2016–2017) for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Christian Carion

Christian Carion

Christian Carion is a French film director, dialogue writer and screenwriter, gaining international attention for Joyeux Noël , which was nominated for several awards, including the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Graham Norton Show

The Graham Norton Show

The Graham Norton Show is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton succeeding Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in BBC One's prestigious late-Friday-evening slot in 2010.

Lochaber

Lochaber

Lochaber is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig, as they were before being reduced in extent by the creation of Quoad Sacra parishes in the 19th century. Lochaber once extended from the Northern shore of Loch Leven, a district called Nether Lochaber, to beyond Spean Bridge and Roybridge, which area is known as Brae Lochaber or Braigh Loch Abar in Gaelic. Lochaber is now also used to refer to a much wider area, one of the 16 ward management areas of the Highland Council of Scotland and one of eight former local government districts of the two-tier Highland region. The main town of Lochaber is Fort William.

COVID-19

COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film had a joint release between two streaming services; with Peacock on September 15, 2021^[6] and The Roku Channel on December 15, 2021.^[7]

The film received a mixed to negative reception from critics, with criticism towards the thin plot as a result of the improvisational nature. It has a score of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[8]