American Son (2019)
- Corey Bulloch
- Nov 8, 2019
- 3 min read
★★
An estranged couple reunite in a Florida police station to help find their missing teenage son.
Classification: 15
Sickeningly preachy and with the handling of the material that feels inadvertently offensive, Netflix's adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name, American Son has all the subtlety of a community college civics debate. Awkward and embarrassing, Christopher Demos-Brown's script features some of the most overbearing and cringe-inducing dialogue as the film gracelessly tells the story of an African American woman waiting to hear news about her son in a police station. Kerry Washington's character of Kendra Ellis-Connor is right to be scared given the current social climate and deep prejudiced history of America and the film attempts to explore these anxieties by trapping Kendra and the audience in a waiting room.
This attempt is short-lived as it becomes clear that American Son has no real interest in a meaningful or empathetic exploration of the deep and significant issues of racial tension in America. Throughout the film, different characters are introduced including Kendra's ex-husband a white FBI Agent, the script or direction isn't very subtle in how any of the several topics are approached. The truth to Jamal Connor's whereabouts is the catalyst for director Kenny Leon and Demos-Brown to create this theatrical tribunal against racism. Kendra spends the whole film arguing with her male counterparts over her right not to trust the system and to be fearful for her son's safety. However, the film strays into a wide variety of topics concerning race in America including stereotypes, authority, privilege and even speech syntax.
Halfway through the film Washington's character accuses Steven Pasquale's character, Scott Connor, that he would keep a photograph of her on his phone to show his friends he wasn't racist. Connor an Irish-American law enforcement officer holds prejudices of his own towards African Americans and Kendra argues that he can never understand the terror she feels. This continuous feud between their two viewpoints drives the drama but it never feels grounded in realism, everything they debate is based is real feelings and facts including references to several victims of police brutality. The execution of this film, however, undermines everything as the script feels like Demos-Brown's way of saying he's not racist. It's emotionally shallow and feels more like white guilt or white ignorance driving the dialogue as none of the characters feels authentic to what they need to accomplish.
It's so theatrical in delivery of performance that it's hard to take anything seriously and has even the most liberal of thinkers rolling their eyes at the blatant pontificating. Washington, the star of the show wildly rides the line between compassionate and ridiculous because of how the script makes her be the torchbearer for every racial issue in America. The realities that American Son wants to take advantage of are critical to learn from but Kenny Leon's direction fails in honouring the various names thrown out to make the film "woke". This film is nowhere near as smart as it thinks it is, and the ego to the film in thinking that it's actually productive in creating a dialogue is deeply uncomfortable.
American Son has this uneasy feeling that it thinks the act of just viewing the film is a critical step in the battle against institutionalised racism. Only a few moments legitimately work and its when all the characters are playing off each other concerning the actual plot. Rather than becoming a contrived theological deliberation, both Leon and Demos-Brown fail in blending Kendra and Scott's story into a wider thematic structure. Leading all to an obvious, abrupt and disappointing ending, the film does little to respect the tragic realities that so many Americans face every day. This subject matter has been handled far more delicately and with far greater credence all Leon's film feels like is a vain, hollow attempt to capitalise on disastrous truths.
Director: #KennyLeon
Release Date: November 1st 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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