Son of a Gun Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Son of a Gun Blu-ray Movie Review

In need of some 'Gun' control.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 17, 2015

The phrase “son of a gun” can be either mildly dismissive or mildly amused, but its etymology, while still somewhat uncertain, is one way or the other a fascinating relic of a bygone age. There’s a wealth of sometimes contradictory but interesting information online about this oft used but seldom really thought about phrase. Some researchers tie the idiom to long ago naval life, when long tours of duty meant that women squirreled onto a voyage sometimes gave birth on board ships, relegated to an area in between the ships’ gun arrays, so that their childbirth wouldn’t interfere with daily tasks (and/or battle). A variant of this theory simply states that the “gun” in the idiom is a referent to the (supposed) father’s occupation as a naval officer or soldier. Other etymologists trace the phrase back even further to a time when swords rather than guns were the preferred weapon, at least for certain chainmail wearing gallants, making those who actually owned guns looked at disparagingly. An even more fanciful, if somewhat more contemporary, “theory” (evidently based on a joke that a bunch of dunderheaded people took to be real) posited an unexpected pregnancy after a bullet traversed through a man’s scrotum and into a woman’s uterus, where conception took place. Julius Avery’s 2014 crime opus Son of a Gun takes a somewhat similarly bifurcated approach toward its title and its meaning, with both a “familiar,” probably derogatory, connotation, along with a somewhat more subtextual reference to the pseudo father-son relationship that springs up between a teenager named JR (Brenton Thwaites) and an older, hardened criminal named Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor). Son of a Gun features a viscerally disturbing first act which documents JR’s matriculation into a frightening world of prison and the unhinged residents of the facility. Unfortunately, the film ultimately collapses under the weight of too many convenient plot machinations, as well as its tendency to forsake some finely attuned character beats in favor of more traditionally hyperbolic action elements.

The first of several overly contrived plot points occurs fairly early on in Son of a Gun, after an obviously nervous JR snakes through the venomous corridors of an imposing Australian prison attempting to avoid eye contact with any number of vicious seeming inmates. JR is nonetheless obviously fascinated by Lynch, though it’s not initially apparent why. Lynch is obsessed with a chess game, and after he makes a move, JR seizes his chance and informs Lynch that that particular move will guarantee a checkmate (against Lynch) within three moves. Without much more than that somewhat fanciful motivating factor, Lynch becomes an unlikely protector of JR, especially after JR himself attempts to protect his addled cellmate from being sexually abused by a much larger predatory inmate.

Lynch’s protection comes at a cost, of course, and that repayment is what actually generates the bulk of Son of a Gun’s increasingly improbable plot. Once JR is sprung from stir after six months, he is sent by Lynch to meet Lynch’s long distance chess partner, a nefarious crime boss named Sam (Jacek Koman). Sam sets JR up in a rather unexpectedly luxe apartment, in anticipation for some upcoming “work” about which JR is still largely ignorant. Soon enough there’s a gorgeous girl in the mix, when an intermediary between Sam and JR named Tasha (Alicia Vikander) enters the picture. By the time JR is hijacking a helicopter to engage in what turns out to be just the first of several increasingly improbable plot machinations, it's obvious that any attempt to keep Son of a Gun "grittily realistic" have fallen by the wayside.

For a while at least it seems like Son of a Gun is going to traverse potent if familiar territory with regard to JR coming to terms with his life in stir, replete with its threats and peculiar opportunities. And indeed the first part of the film follows this tack fairly rotely, recalling any number of prior outings that cast an untested naif into the shark infested waters of an “industrial” prison. But if writer-director Julius Avery has a sure hand on the claustrophobic paranoia that attends to much of JR’s early existence in jail, the helmer can’t quite deliver himself from hoary and ultimately silly metaphors like chess standing in for, you know, life. The chess game that initially brings JR and Lynch together, if contentiously at first, becomes a running image throughout the film that does little other than pointlessly call attention to itself.

But the film takes a rather sharp left turn once JR is out of prison and the full ramifications of his debt to Lynch are revealed. But even here the film is not through with overwrought plot (and maybe even genre) twists, as the film veers precariously once again from what initially seems like a heist or caper mode into something else entirely. It’s as if Avery had one of those old “one from Column A, one from Column B” menus and couldn’t quite decide on a choice, and so simply decided to include everything.

What helps the film surmount its structural hiccups is a set of intensely visceral performances, chief among them McGregor, who brings an almost palpable viciousness to the role of Lynch. Even in relatively quiet dialogue scenes, Lynch seems primed to explode at any given moment, and McGregor evinces an almost atavistic, animalistic ambience that keeps the viewer slightly on edge. Thwaites has a somewhat less florid row to hoe, but he manages to deliver a compelling portrait of a kid first seeking nothing more than protection, and then falling under the sway of so-called “bad influences,” only to discover maybe he likes it that way.

Son of a Gun ultimately never really works, but one can’t fault it for having a lack of ambition. While Avery the writer still struggles with overly precious metaphors and a certain reliance on overheated dialogue as well, as a director he paces the film well and certainly knows how to manage actors effectively. McGregor and Thwaites are ultimately the main reasons for watching Son of a Gun, though, offering a chilling portrait of two souls who prove that “family” dysfunction doesn’t necessarily require being related in the first place.

Son of a Gun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Son of a Gun is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Despite a rather refreshing lack of aggressive color grading, Son of a Gun, while suitably sharp and clear, never really pops for much of its running time (with a couple of notable exceptions). Interiors are kind of flat and drab looking, even in sequences like the fluorescently lit prison scenes. When the film ventures out of doors, or when JR gets to his gorgeous seaside apartment, the palette perks up materially. The entire presentation offers good to excellent fine detail, with some extreme close-ups offering a "warts (and/or scars) and all" perspective of the faces of McGregor and Thwaites. Colors look natural, if often amber hued in that typically Australian sunlit way, and are decently saturated. Contrast is consistent and there are no issues with compression artifacts or image instability.

Son of a Gun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Son of a Gun's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is an enjoyably raucous and boisterous affair, offering good discrete channelization for a wealth of immersive sound effects (including bursts of impressive LFE) in big set pieces like a prison break, but also delivering solid spatial differentiation even in quieter, more dialogue driven, scenes. The film's moody score by Jed Kurzel is nicely placed throughout the surrounds and offers good support for the film's angst ridden emotional content. Dialogue is presented cleanly, and the entire track sports excellent fidelity and extremely wide dynamic range.

Son of a Gun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Julius Avery. Avery is a first time writer-director, and he's obviously very enthused about this project. He tends to fall into the "and now we're seeing" rut a few times.


• Partners in Crime: The Making of Son of a Gun (1080p; 12:55) is this disc's requisite EPK, with the expected behind the scenes footage, interviews with cast and crew, and snippets from the completed film.

Son of a Gun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Son of a Gun simply careens too wildly from tone to tone and plot point to plot point to ever develop any momentum. But the visceral intensity of the performances of McGregor and Thwaites helps to offset some of the self-inflicted wounds generated by writer-director Julius Avery. While increasingly preposterous and ultimately defeated by its own grandiose aims, the core relationship between JR and Lynch makes Son of a Gun an often compelling viewing experience. Technical merits are generally strong, and with caveats noted, Son of a Gun comes Recommended.