Critic Reviews

There’s a ton of truth and ugliness to You Will Be My Son, and the minor digressions into soapy territory keep threatening to derail. It never does thanks to Arstrup, a force of nature who grabs his scenes by the throat and never lets go.

Lustrous photography and a fine cast make this dark drama a compelling one.

Writer/director Gilles Legrand’s study of fraught father/son relationships builds the tension, helped by a fine cast...while the vineyards of Bordeaux offer a deceptively serene backdrop.

There are no big surprises in store in terms of where this setup is headed...But the pic’s pleasures are nonetheless numerous, starting with its talented cast.

It’s a human-size tragedy, one that shows how deadening it can be to remain subject to those who give us life.

[A] beautifully acted movie.

A strongly acted, character-driven melodrama, concerned with the dynamics of family in general and father-son issues in particular, it presents situations so emotionally supercharged that the whole story could have come straight out of Balzac.

It’s an entertaining melodrama of the old school that plays out with the clockwork inevitability of a “Columbo” episode.

How much you enjoy You Will Be My Son depends on how much you can take an unbearable, arrogant jerk as your lead character.

The film overcomes its schematic plot elements with finely observed characterizations and rich dialogue.