My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

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Michael SHANNON brilliantly plays a modern-day Orestes in this Oedipal drama of matricide and clinical depression.

The film is less than the sum of its parts, however, in never revealing much about the protagonists – we only see the symptoms of their mental sickness, not very much of the causes. One is, thus, left with the feeling that this film director has simply run out of story ideas; hoping that the visuals will tell the story for him. Because the latter are not that interesting, on their own, they will not do this.

This movie could have been a fine examination of the ennui and malaise of a materialistic Western culture that produces such schizophrenic behavior, but it wallows in it rather than exploring the failings of those who never find a purpose in life.

Copyright © 2010 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.