While their son goes missing, an estranged couple, having a lot of issues to deal with, must wait at the police station until further news arrives.
As a big Kerry Washington fan, straight after watching the trailer, I put it on Netflix and watched it. The disappointment was huge. So, where do I start…
Characters: All four of them are dislikable. In a nutshell, Kendra throws out a few times that she has a PhD in Psychology, and not even once can she hold her emotions, lashing out at everyone. Scott, an FBI agent, acts nothing like it – more like a wannabe CEO with his head way up his arse. Paul is just a dumbass, and Lt. Stokes an obnoxious bellend.
Acting: Jeremy Jordan could have made his naive character act like it; he could have done a lot more with it. Steven Pasquale looks like he doesn’t want to be on set; it’s like he forgot he is going out with his mates for pints, and he has stood them up. Eugene Lee acts as if he’s a judge, dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, and, as with Steven, he’s in a rush to leave the set and go back to sleep. Last but definitely not least, my favourite, Kerry Washington, constantly grimaces while raising political and social issues and acts as if the importance of those issues matters to her more than her missing son. Something that leads me to the…
Story: Feels very forceful! In an hour and a half, it is trying to address racism from… Every. Single. Angle. The topic changes and, not very creatively, comes back to that every time. Repeatedly. Over and over again. And the damage it does is that it overshadows the parents’ greatest fear: the worst-case scenario about their child. Which may or may not be the case here (watch it). When your child goes missing and ultimately is proved that you know a lot more than you reveal in the beginning, you are not preoccupied that much with racism. You wait until your child proves to be alright, bollock it to tears, and then argue with anyone about anything. In American Son, everyone argues with everyone, and it all boils down to race. White on black, black on white, and black on black. And this notion to fully develop and thoroughly analyse such a perplexing and painful issue as ‘racism’ in an hour and a half ruins the plot, which should have been the parents’ agonising drama. Period. All the rest is a subplot.
It’s a shame, as all the actors are brilliant (apologies for favouring Kerry more), but the story’s unfolding doesn’t do justice to the characters or the acting. Here in the UK, racism is a massively sore issue as well, but I have hardly ever heard any conversation going down like that. One of the best films I watched last year, which tackles racism in a very creative, subtle, but also kind of funny way, is Blindspotting (2018) – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
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