The Good Son

Directed by Joseph Ruben, The Good Son follows Elijah Wood’s Mark Evans as he’s sent to live with his aunt (Wendy Crewson’s Susan) and uncle (Daniel Hugh Kelly’s Wallace) for a few weeks in the wake of his mother’s death – with problems ensuing after Mark begins noticing the odd, increasingly sinister behavior of his cousin (Macaulay Culkin’s Henry). Filmmaker Ruben, working from Ian McEwan’s screenplay, delivers a sporadically watchable yet mostly (and curiously) inert thriller that rarely lives up to the potential of its irresistible setup, as the movie, which runs a short-yet-not-short-enough 83 minutes, lurches from one hit-and-miss set piece to the next with exceedingly, distressingly little in the way of forward momentum – with the uninvolving atmosphere compounded by a lack of wholeheartedly interesting protagonists and periphery figures. (Every character here seems to have emerged directly from a template for stories of this ilk, ultimately.) It’s likewise clear that Culkin’s one-note turn as the far-from-frightening villain does little to alleviate the often pervasively underwhelming vibe, and although the picture admittedly does include a small handful of engaging interludes (eg the whole Mr. Highway episode), The Good Son builds towards a rather ridiculously climax that ensures it concludes on as lackluster a note as one could envision – which cements its place as a disappointing misfire that feels like it could (and should) be so much better.

** out of ****