A routine Scottish thriller, with the clichés stripped away, makes for a gripping, quite credible TV movie.

For such a wee nation, Scotland certainly punches above its weight on the global stage. Yet for much of the time Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Karen Gillan, Kelly Macdonald, Ewan McGregor and James McAvoy have been adopting American accents. And let us not forget Sean Connery. So it’s a tonic to see James McAvoy play a Scot in the glen, in particular against the magisterial landscapes of the rain-swept Highlands. The writer-director Christian Carion has relocated his French film – Mon garçon (2017) – from the mountains of south-east France to the lochs and monros of Caledonia. And it’s good for the requisite atmosphere as Edmond Murray (McAvoy) drives through glorious if threatening scenery to be re-united with his ex-wife, Joan (Claire Foy).

In these precious opening moments, Carion immediately spins the twin motors of credibility and intrigue as we discover that Edmond and Joan are divorced and that their seven-year-old son, Ethan, has gone missing. The police are already searching the lake adjacent to a holiday camp but are refusing to divulge any hypothesis as of yet. Carion favours the less-is-more approach and so we piece together the fragments of a narrative drip-fed to us, while a sense of foreboding intensifies. Edmond and Joan are obviously decent, loving parents whose relationship has not so much broken as been rather bent out of shape. We soon learn that both are seeing other people and are struggling not to accuse the other: did Joan properly assess the camp clientele, does Edmond really have to spend so much time overseas?

It helps to have actors of the intelligence of McAvoy and Foy. The latter looks like she hasn’t slept for a month, while McAvoy conveys volumes with his eyes, improvising all his scenes (he wasn’t even shown the script). As the policeman in charge of the investigation, Gary Lewis provides more integrity and his operation feels almost documentary-like in its attention to detail. It is all instantly gripping stuff.

However, even though My Son is ten minutes longer than Mon garçon, one still hopes for more: more revelation, more layers to be unpicked. But it’s a tight, taut drama which, with its ravishing visuals (thank you Eric Dumont, DP), should look marvellous on the big screen. On the streaming platform of Amazon Prime, though, it feels more like a very good TV movie. And there’s a lot of good Scottish drama on the telly. But with McAvoy and Foy lending their star power, let’s hope this small, perfectly formed thriller finds the audience it deserves.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis, Michael Moreland, Robert Jack, Owen Whitelaw, Paul Rattray, and the voice of Toni Frutin.

Dir Christian Carion, Pro Rebecca O'Brien, Marc Butan, Christian Carion, Brahim Chioua, Laure Irrman and Vincent Maraval, Screenplay Christian Carion and Laure Irrmann, Ph Eric Dumont, Ed Loïc Lallemand, Music Laurent Perez del Mar, Costumes Carole Miller, Sound Bruno Reiland.

STXfilms/MadRiver Pictures/Une Hirondelle Productions/Canal+/Ciné+/Wild Bunch International/Wild Bunch Germany/Sixteen Films-STX International.
95 mins. UK/France/Germany. 2021. UK Rel: 21 January 2022. US Rel: 15 September 2021. Available on Amazon Prime. Cert. 15.

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