What a teasing opener this film had;
A gritty prison in the deep Australian heat. Thugs and villains line the walls. We await to see the films leading anti hero. We wait to hear him speak. We hope Ewan McGregor doesn't do an Australian accent. He doesn't. Phew.
We all know that McGregor is a talented man. But the distance from Scottish to Australian is a hell of a jump. For Son of a Gun, the new crime thriller, the actor retains his rugged Scottish tones to portray Australia's public enemy number one.
The film is the feature début for director Julius Avery. Told on the screen, the story has the typical elements of a crime thriller. It has a prison break, a heist, a tough team leader and the young protégé. There's the opposing concepts of honour among thieves vs winner takes all which demonstrated throughout by the metaphor of chess. Combined with good pace, fast action and a decent level of suspense Son of a Gun is an entertaining watch.
The action in the film is a huge part of its appeal. From the helicopter assisted prison break to the gorilla masked gold heist, its fun and visually impressive. The director has nailed the exhilaration and excitement of the film with precision. Unfortunately, the overall tone and direction of the piece is a little wobbly. Despite its good pace with regular twists and turns the film is sorely unoriginal. The plot and characters are too familiar and closer to archetypes rather than real characters. You will see where the film is going before they do and the predictability takes away from the films suspense.
In the lead as JR, Thwaites is able to handle both the action and the human side of his character. In attempting to portray JR as naive he sometimes feels unintelligent and unsympathetic yet he is still watchable and has good dynamics with other characters.
A buffed up Ewan McGregor looks the part as criminal veteran Brendan. Although he holds the screen and has most of the impressive lines his character is a little uncertain. You do not know what to make of him which feels more like misdirection rather than character ambiguity. Still all in all they are watchable and work well together.
An entertaining film despite its unoriginality. Son of a Gun has action and suspense in good measure which will hold your attention when, in other places, the films fails.
Son of a Gun is out January 30th