The Good Son

Mr. Highway is thinking of the end....

Being the same age as Macaulay Culkin, most of his movies I rather enjoyed because of the commonality we would have as 10 year olds, or whatever age he was at the time. Trying to shed his comedic type castness after such roles like Home Alone and Uncle Buck he takes on one of the most controversial films ever released. Not only does it involve children, but children who vandalize, smoke, and curse. Not just curse, but seeing a young boy say the F word on screen was unheard of and really frowned upon. I know when I saw this in the theater my Mom had no idea that one was coming and it really pissed her off. She wasn't even the overbearing psychotic type of Mother. I think it just caught her off guard. I think I ended up watching it a second time while it was in the theater. When Mark's (A very young Frodo Baggins) Mother dies, his Father needs some time alone, so Mark goes to live with his Aunt and Uncle and cousins. Henry (Culkin) is his cousin and they are the same age which pleases Henry. He now has a playmate other than his younger sister who he can't stand. Henry seems to be the perfect son, but Mark sees a side of him that no one else does. At first it's just boys will be boys stuff. Breaking windows, tormenting the local guard dog, and being mean to his sister. Then it takes a turn straight south. Mark sees him smoking and like the peer pressured cousin, Mark takes a couple puffs. Quickly it goes from bad to worse. Enter Mr. Highway. Henry builds this mannequin that looks real enough, takes him to an overpass and pushes him off, causing an extreme traffic halting vehicle pile up. 
When Mark finally says enough to his cousin is when the threats begin and the F bomb drops. Mark now knows Henry is mentally unstable, but no one else sees it. When he attempts to bring this news to Henry's Mom, she hires a therapist for fear that Mark is having difficulty with the passing of his own Mother. The things Henry does are not all unheard of, but I do remember thinking to myself that I would never do that, and wondered how anyone could.    Eventually Henry's true colors begin to cast a shadow that others are able to notice, and ultimately it comes down to a decision no parent would ever want to be faced with. My wife never saw this film until we had children of our own, and it freaked her out. She was seriously concerned that our son would grow up to be a serial bad boy, doing things that would terrify most adults. I assured her that would never happen, but she also vowed to never watch that movie again. Not because it was bad or she didn't like it, but because she doesn't want to think about children being awful little people.


NBM rates The Good Son (with all its controversy) - Awesome


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