Parents' Guide to

Your Son

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Taut thriller with some moments of extreme violence.

Movie NR 2018 103 minutes
Your Son Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 15+

Based on 1 parent review

Alaataj
Alaataj Adult
March 6, 2019
age 15+
Rape with screaming, but no nudity. Two girls kissing

This title has:

Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In YOUR SON, Jaíme (Jose Coronado) is a surgeon with a wife and two kids, including his adult son, Marco, with whom he shares a close relationship. One night while at work, he learns that Marco is in the ER, unconscious and badly beaten. The police have footage of Marco leaving a nightclub, but nothing else to go on except some rumors that he was attacked by several men for no apparent reason. Jaíme confronts one of Marco's friends who was seen that night at the nightclub with Marco, who tells Jaíme that one of the attackers had dyed white hair and recorded the attack as it happened on his smartphone, but won't say anything more because he fears retribution. From this, Jaíme tries taking the law into his own hands, leaving his house at all hours of the night to stalk the man with the dyed white hair. As Jaíme's vigilante activities increase, his wife, his daughter, his co-workers, and the police begin to question his sanity. As Jaíme begins to discover the identity of those who attacked Marco, he must confront an even more shocking truth about what exactly happened on the night of Marco's assault.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (1 ):

This is a taut and riveting thriller that takes several astonishing twists and turns. What initially seems like a "vigilante justice" movie, with the heroes and villains clearly delineated, becomes a lot more complicated. As Jaíme, a surgeon in late middle-age who struggles with moral ambiguity and the lines between respect for the law, a father's love, and toxic masculine concepts of honor and retribution, Jose Coronado turns in an astonishing performance of a man who elicits sympathy, concern, and contempt from the audience over the course of the movie.

There are moments in Your Son when there's so much suspense, the passage of time in the moments of tremendous action begins to feel almost unbearable. For instance, there's a scene in which a club owner enters Jaíme's car on a dark side street. The two face each other, stare each other down. The tension is so thick in that moment of not knowing exactly how it's going to go down, and the actors and filmmakers stretch that pause to the absolute limit before the shocking payoff. And this is just one of many similar moments. Overall, this is a dark suspense thriller that challenges conventions and viewers' understanding of sympathetic and unsympathetic characters. It's excellent but it isn't for kids.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about "vigilante justice" movies. How does Your Son compare to other movies in which someone tries to take the law into their own hands when they believe that justice hasn't been served?

  • How does the movie use sympathetic characters to create empathy and identification? How are these characters used for purposes of suspense and plot twists in the story?

  • How did the violence affect your feelings for the characters as the movie progressed?

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