KobusAdAstra This review may contain slight spoilers.This is the heartbreaking story of Julien, a young and bright schoolboy from a seemingly normal family. Julien's dad is a hard-working academic at university, his mother a great cook who keeps the household going, and Julien's older sister is about to enter university. We quickly learn that all is not well. Julien's manipulative mother has a major issue with her son growing up and would like to keep him at home, as hers alone. When he starts rebelling and questioning her actions, she starts unraveling, mentally and even physically assaulting Julien. She clearly has serious psychological problems.His indifferent, remote father is a busy man, who in his spare time escapes home by playing tennis with his mates. Julien's dad turns a blind eye, even when his sister complains to him about the way her spiteful and controlling mother is treating her younger brother. Things get worse, with Julien threatening to commit suicide. Then one afternoon, it all comes to a point...This is a depressing, unsettling and somewhat manipulative psychological drama with outstanding performances by Julien (Victor Séveax) and his hateful, selfish mother (Nathalie Baye). Great camera-work and excellent, foreboding soundtrack too. 8/10.

jandesimpson SPOILERS (with references to "Play Misty for Me", "The Manchurian Candidate", "Don't Look Now" and "Psycho 2" that could also contain spoilers)Cineasts seem besotted by "top ten" lists; ten greats, ten worst, ten desert island favourites; I could go on...However, by way of introduction to "Mon Fils a Moi" allow me to suggest another category; the greatest human monsters in cinema. Rather than boring you with ten, I've chosen a small group that I think are about the best. Possibly as I am male, it is the female ones that intrigue me the most. It was so much more unnerving to experience Clint Eastwood being pursued by a female slasher in "Play Misty for Me" than all those women fleeing deranged men with knives in endless dark house movies. And how about Donald Sutherland's fate at the hands of the dwarf in the red mac in "Don't Look Now", almost the only film that still really terrifies me, having got used to the terror in the Clint Eastwood work which is more a tragedy of unrequited love than a horror flick. Which brings me to the classification of the female monster into two broad types, the evil and the sick. The greatest of the evil must surely be Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate" for whom no act could be too despicable in her pursuit of political and even world domination. I had always thought Jessica Walter in "Misty" the greatest of the sickos but can now record that she has been equalled by Nathalie Baye in a recent off-beat French work "Mon Fils a Moi" by Martial Fougeron, a director new to me. This is a minor but completely engrossing vignette of a dysfunctional family, all the more claustrophobic for being mainly confined to a small group of characters, mum, dad, adolescent daughter and son just entering puberty. They live in a respectable detached house in a quiet residential part of a provincial town. Dad is a college teacher, Mum a housewife, daughter about to go on to higher education and son just a boy, albeit not doing too well at school. As the film progresses we quickly realise that the boy's condition is far from normal. Not only are his grades bad but he is off his food. Almost from the beginning there are many telltale signs that the problem is Mum. Her pathological love of the boy is about to result in the disintegration of the family as she attempts to stifle every sign of his adolescent development. The more the boy tries to distance himself the more the mother retaliates by forcing him to relinquish his interests one by one. Eventually he is left in an almost empty room with nothing he can call his own. Even his beloved piano has been taken away by removal men. There is a particularly poignant moment where he uses his knees as a dummy keyboard. The daughter is the only one to retaliate on her brother's behalf but she hasn't the strength to cope with Mum's viciousness. Dad's defence mechanism is to ignore everything going on around him by immersing himself in work, but even he can hardly bear his wife's callousness after a party the boy attends against her wishes. Olivier Gourmet is particularly fine in his uncharacteristic part of a weakling. How true to type is his almost inevitable apology after delivering her a single blow. The director paces the film with the assuredness of a master. The increase in tension through gradually notching up the level of violence is the stuff of the truly outstanding psychological thriller. How will it all end? Just how much more can the son take before he snaps? Suffice to say that this must have have been one of the most extraordinarily difficult films to end without going over the top into melodrama. All the more reason to admire the last line in which Mum is quoted as saying she she has forgiven her son. Nathalie Baye's superb performance would suggest just the opposite, that there is no ending, and, as Norman Bates says in "Psycho 2", it could all start up again.

jotix100 A mother's love for a son that is growing up too fast before her eyes and her refusal to admit to the fact, is something no one is prepared for, yet, the woman at the center of this story decided to keep Julien all for herself. There are hints that something more sinister is going on in this strange relationship, or even incest, when the mother refuses to let her son have a normal life.Julien, a straight A student, starts losing his interest in school, as well as in playing the piano. His grandmother has taught him from the beginning; he shows talent for playing the instrument, but he refuses to go on. His grades begin to plunge, something of concern for his teacher at the high school he attends. Julien's father, at the same time, is too preoccupied to see what is happening to the young man.At the same time, this mother instead of showing her maternal love, displays a cruelty like we haven't seen in films in quite a while. The relationship, as it is, can't go on like this. The father of Julien doesn't seem to realize what is going on, or perhaps he refuses to believe what her daughter points out to him. The situation, we know, can't stay the way it is because of its foundation. This mother doesn't want to let go and her love for Julien turns into a tragedy for the whole family.We watched this film on cable recently. It probably didn't get an American release based on the contents, but who knows if it ever seen in this country. Directed with style by Martial Fougeron, who co-wrote the script with Florence Eleakim, this is a disturbing film, clearly not targeted for the general public. A Belgian-French co-production, the film surprises because of the way the creators have delved under the characters to show a different kind of relationship between a mother and a son like it has not been seen in a while.Natalie Baye, a French actress, proved a surprise in her take of the mother. Ms. Baye, who has spent her life in front of a camera, shows to be a natural for the woman on the screen. Ms. Baye shows an uncanny intelligence in her performance that is never a caricature of the tormented soul she is supposed to be. Also notable, the young actor Victor Sevaux, whose luminous presence makes Julien comes across as perhaps he was supposed to have been this boy the brilliant team behind this film had in mind. Oliver Gourmet, Emmanuelle Riva, and Marie Kremer, are also seen in supporting roles.Take a chance in watching this film because Martial Fougeron and Natalie Baye make a wonderful contribution to this film that will be hard to forget.

Carlos Martinez Escalona Turning the page from childhood into adolescence, Julien seems to be a very happy child with lots of things to do. A straight 20 (that's A) student, a football player in the team that is preparing its next championship, a dedicated pupil of his own granny who teaches him piano and loves him dearly; a happy child starting a relationship with a girl at school.With passionate and memorable performances of all the cast, definitely Nathalie Baye leads the pack with a terrific impersonation of Julien's mother. A pity this time Olivier Gourmet had a small but very effective role as the father. Marie Kremer as Julien's sister is fantastic, but Victor Sévaux as Julien is one of the best roles played by a child I've ever seen. He reminded me the amazing character of Ken Loach's "Kes" or the powerful performance of Christian Bale in "The Empire of the Sun", or, maybe closer in time, Juanjo Ballesta in "El Bola", a film that deals with the subject matter of Mon Fils à Moi.The script is written in the same vein as some of the Dardenne's brothers films: fast cuts into expressions that tell even the text in the mind of the characters. Mme. Baye's character is mesmerising, to say the least. One difficult role to play as a deranged over-protecting mother that relies in her power to determine her son's fate. Absolutely diabolical and very disturbing.This is a film that has the power of moving every fibre in your mind and heart, even physically. There is one scene of incredible tension that leads to the not so expected end where you will feel how your heart-rate increases dramatically.Shot with lots of natural light and intelligent camera angles and movements, it never lets you go. A beautiful, difficult to watch film that will stay with you for a long time... and I mean it, it's just too hard to see when love is turned into slavery and that slavery is justified as love.These are the kind of films that have a brave approach to difficult subjects and give you the opportunity to discuss it many times.