TAKEN (MY BOY)

James McAvoy is one of those actors who is not afraid to push the boat out.

Whether it is playing a corrupt Edinburgh cop in 'Filth' or a schizophrenic kidnapper with 24 personalities in 'Split,' he is prepared to take risks.

He'll mix Hollywood fare like the 'X Men' prequels and action films like 'Atomic Blonde' with indie comedies or dramas like Damian O'Donnell's 'Inside I'm Dancing' or Tom Vaughan's 'University Challenge' inspired 'Starter for Ten'.

Not every gamble has paid off but the Glaswegian is arguably one of the most daring actors around.

Now he's at it again in a rain drenched thriller for Amazon Prime 'My Son,' set in the Scottish Highlands.

A remake by French director Christian Carion of his 2017 thriller 'Mon Garcon' with Guillaume Canet, 'My Son' is notable for the way its star has made the movie.

While the rest of the cast and crew were embedded in the Highlands and were given Carion and Laure Irrman's screenplay, McAvoy was kept in the dark - arriving on a ferry on the first day of shooting.

Everything you see McAvoy do onscreen is improvised in a movie whose plot was shot in chronological order.

While everyone else works from a script, he reacts to the events unfolding around him.

'My Son' begins on a ferry in the early hours of a cold, wet Scottish morning.

McAvoy's Edmond Murray has been summoned to Scotland from abroad because of the disappearance of his seven year old son, Ethan from a glamping pod.

Arriving at the campsite where Ethan was sleeping, he finds his distraught ex, Claire Foy's Joan Richmond anxiously waiting at the edge of a lake as police divers comb it.

They initially console each other and try to make sense of Ethan's disappearance in the early hours of the morning but the search of the site yields nothing.

Edmond and Joan join a search of a forest led by Gary Lewis' Police Scotland Inspector Roy.

Again, this yields no clues.

Inspector Roy questions Edmond to try to understand his relationship with his son.

His phone is examined, as the inspector tries to work out if Edmond's secretive line of work abroad may have resulted in enemies kidnapping the boy.

As time wears on with little sign of who took Ethan or how, Edmond becomes more agitated.

A visit to the home of Joan and her partner, Tom Cullen's Frank becomes particularly fraught when Frank seems more interested in showing Edmond plans for their new home.

A fight breaks out with Edmond knocking Frank unconscious.

After he urges the police to look into Frank as a suspect, Edmond is arrested but charges are not pressed due to the stress he is under.

Inspector Roy, however, informs Edmond he has been surprisingly taken off the case.

Edmond has taken Frank's phone and rummaging through his photos finds potential clues to Ethan's whereabouts.

However it means taking matters into his own hands and using force if necessary.

Audiences will be struck watching Carion's movie how it feels like a more arty version of the hugely popular Liam Neeson kidnapping tale 'Taken'.

A similar sense of dread permeates 'My Boy' as it does in Pierre Morel's hit 2008 film, with Ethan's disappearance also evoking grim memories of the real life Madeleine McCann case.

As Eric Dumont's camera follows McAvoy through the wild terrain of the Scottish Highlands in the cold, mist and famp, it feels like a realist twist on the 'Taken' formula.

However as Carion's movie enters it third act, it loses its way.

What begins as an interesting filmmaking experiment and an unconventional thriller soon slides into the mould of a by the book thriller.

And that's disappointing.

While McAvoy, with his flat cap, is compelling initially as an absent father desperate to trace his son, the sudden switch into Charles Bronson and Liam Neeson avenger mode is a bit jarring.

Nonetheless because of the work McAvoy puts in earlier in the film, you still feel invested.

As this is very much McAvoy's vehicle, Foy, Lewis and Cullen feel like passengers.

And while they turn in professional performances, they are dwarfed by his more daring approach.

The same is true for James Michie, Robert Jack and Owen Whitelaw who turn up in significant supporting roles.

Watching 'My Boy' is a dour experience and it's hard to decipher what Carion has really gained from remaking his original movie 'Non Garcon'.

Like Dutch director George Sluizer's 1993 Hollywood remake of his 1988 psychological thriller 'The Vanishing' and Norwegian filmmaker Hans Petter Moland's 2019 revenge tale 'Cold Pursuit' which remade his 2014 movie 'In Order of Disappearance' for English speaking audiences, it's not without its merits.

But just like those films, it's a slightly hollow affair. 

Carion and McAvoy have no doubt taken part in an interesting filmmaking experiment.

But ultimately as a thriller, it fails to see through its initial premise.

A chance to do something truly original with 'My Son' feels squandered despite a valiant effort from McAvoy.

('My Son' was released for streaming in the UK and Ireland on Amazon Prime on January 21, 2022)