There is nothing worse than the disappearance of a loved one. Especially when that loved one is a little helpless child that does not have the strength to fight back its perpetrator. Police may get involved in the search for the missing child but depending on the country or the area, it might be up to the parent to do what is right.

“My Son” follows an always absent father, Edmond Murray (James McAvoy), who is called to the site where his son Ethan was last seen. His ex-wife Joan (Claire Foy) is inconsolable but manages to join the search party before the entire investigation was called off by the London police. Realizing that soon the signs of his son may disappear completely, the desperate father begins to ask uncomfortable questions until he gets the main lead that will determine everything.

The film starts with Ethan’s disappearance. What appears to have happened is that he was sent to camp by his mother and her boyfriend, from where around 1 AM, the boy was taken away. Whether he is dead or alive, we know nothing. All that we are allowed to know is there were two people that specifically were too friendly and offered camp to Ethan. Edmond works overseas, mainly in the Middle East, which could be a possibility of his dangerous worm that might have led his presumed enemies to kidnap his child. However, as for the police, they usually begin to look closer to the family, and Edmond, who has always been absent, is the first one questioned by the investigators.

A remake of the French film Mon garçon and directed for the English speaking audience by Christian Carion, the film does not overload with insignificant details nor paints James McCavoy as a Rambo style father who goes against people that have taken his son. Instead, he does what he’s supposed to as a parent and puts his life at risk to look for his son, when he already knew the authorities will do nothing about it. And by the time they will, it will be too late. Claire Foy contributes as well, as a mother who won’t sit idle and joins to help her ex-husband find their son. It is the teamwork of two loved parents that go beyond their abilities and along the way find the courage to put their differences aside in the fight for a common cause – the safety of their son.