The Whore's Son

Adapted from a novel by Gabriel Loidolt, this is most interesting for its textured family history and pained religiosity.

The film fearlessly plumbs the depths of this intense mother-son relationship, and also explores the ways in which role models affect children's lives.

In the end, Sturminger's virginal insistence on draining the mother-son relationship of all eros also drains it of interest.

The grave comic presence of Miki Manojlovic (from Kusturica's Underground) as Ozren's worldly uncle stabilizes the movie's tantalizingly uncertain tone, at least until its bizarre closing plunge into Oedipal catharsis.

Austrian director Michael Sturminger's debut feature creates a visually evocative environment in which to explore some significant themes, from religious repression to Freudian guilt.

Works better as a look at life among a family of Croatian immigrants in Vienna during the nightmare years of the Balkan conflicts than an exploration of the psychosexual tension between a prostitute and her son.

The misfortune, of Michael Stürminger's low-boil melodrama is that it's entirely too familiar. Underneath the movie's cool surface beats the heart of a 1940s tear-jerker. It's a subzero "Stella Dallas."