The Good Son is a 1993 drama-thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and written by Ian McEwan.
Plot
While 12-year-old Mark Evans (Elijah Wood) is at his mother's side as she's dying of
cancer at a hospital in Arizona, he makes her a promise that he won't let her die. When she does
die, Mark is consumed with grief, and is also guilt-ridden because he couldn't keep his promise to her. Shortly after, Mark's
father Jack (David Morse) is assigned to take a two week business trip to Tokyo, Japan. Thinking that the blustery Maine environment and the company of
relatives will do Mark some good, Jack leaves Mark with Jack's brother Wallace Evans (Daniel
Hugh Kelly) in Maine while Jack is on his trip. Wallace and his wife Susan (Wendy
Crewson) have a son Mark's age named Henry (Macaulay Culkin) and an 8-year-old
daughter named Connie (Quinn Culkin). Wallace and Susan's 3-year-old son Richard died by drowning
in the bathtub a few months ago.
At first, Mark and Henry get along great, but Mark begins to notice that Henry's ideas of fun differ significantly from his
own. Henry threatens to topple Mark from a 15 meter high tree house, and Henry uses his homemade crossbow to kill the neighbor's
dog. Later, Henry shows Mark his dummy, named "Mr. Highway", which Henry drops from an overpass onto a highway, causing a 10-car
pileup. Henry also insinuates that Richard's drowning was not an accident. But Henry's perfect son facade is so convincing that
no one believes Mark. Everyone is convinced that Mark is just acting out the trauma of his mother's death. Mark knows that Henry
drowned Richard in a fit of jealousy because it seemed to Henry that Susan and Wallace were giving Richard the most attention.
Mark was convinced that Henry's next target is his sister, Connie. Also, Mark believes that his mother has been reincarnated in
Susan, and he tells Henry about it. Fueled by more jealousy than ever before, Henry's reign of terror escalates, and he hints to
Mark that he plans to kill Connie for the same reason why he killed Richard. But even after Connie survives a suspicious ice
skating accident, Mark's fears are still dismissed. Mark decides to do all he can to prevent Henry from hurting Connie. When Mark
catches Henry in the kitchen late one night, he is convinced more than ever that Henry is trying to kill his whole family by
putting poison in the food. He tries to dispose of all the food in the house, but Susan and Wallace stops him, thinking that he's
not in the right mind. They fixed Mark up with a psychologist to help him but it seems no one will listen to him about Henry's
true colors.
Mark tries to warn Susan about Henry but Susan, still distraught over the loss of Richard and the hospitalization of Connie,
refused to believe Mark. And then Susan discovers Henry's secret playhouse, and she finds the rubber duckie that was missing from
Richard's bath on the day of the drowning. She asks Henry about it but Henry lunges at her, grabs the rubber duckie and runs to
the well in the middle of the cemetery and throws it down. At home, Mark catches Henry in front of the mirror with tears in his
eyes. Henry hints to Mark that he is going to kill Susan. In a fit of anger, Mark lunges at Henry with a pair of scissors pressed
against his throat. Wallace catches them, quickly grabs Mark and lock him up in the study while waiting for Mark's psychologist
to come over. Mark screams and tries to get out. When he saw Henry leading Susan away from the house, Mark breaks a window with a
chair in an attempt to escape. Wallace tries to stop him but Mark breaks free and runs after Henry and Susan.
While they are taking a walk, Susan confronts Henry for the truth about what happened to Richard. Henry indirectly reveals
that he drowned Richard and told Susan that he'd rather die than be locked up. He makes a run for the cliffs and Susan runs after
him. She stops at the edge of the cliff, thinking Henry might have jumped. Henry then rushes out behind the bushes and pushes her
over. While she hangs on for her life, Henry was about to drop a huge rock on her when Mark tackles him to the ground. While they
wrestle dangerously near the edge of the cliff, Susan quickly climbs up the cliff. As she reaches the top, the boys wrestle and
roll over the edge. She quickly grabs them each with one arm and tries to pull them up but couldn't. As both of them were
slipping, she has to make a choice to save only one or the other. Both boys plead for help, with Henry telling his mother
desperately that he loves her. Susan forces herself to let go of Henry to save Mark. She pulls Mark up and both of them sob in
each other's arms. At the end, Mark wonders to himself if she had the chance, would Susan still choose to save him or her
Henry.
Cast
Reaction
The film was unfavorably reviewed by most critics, with Roger Ebert giving it half a
star.
However, it received $44,789,789 in domestic box office revenues, and another $15,823,219 worldwide, for a total box office
take of $60,613,008.[1]
Trivia
- Michael Klesic was originally cast in the role of Henry Evans in 1988. The film was soon put on hold due to lack of funding. A couple years later Jesse Bradford was cast as Henry Evans because the original child actors had grown too old for their
parts. The project was once again put on hold and the same problem happened. In 1993, the movie was
re-cast yet again and finally shot and released.
- The original director Michael Lehmann who believed that Culkin was wrong to play a
sinister 12-year-old sociopath, left the project, which was put off to let Culkin finish "Home Alone 2."
- Fox executives insisted that the studio wanted Culkin for "The Good Son" all along. According to head of production Roger
Birnbaum, Kit Culkin saw the script but did not respond for a number of months. Then, as the
movie was nearing production with another actor in mind for the role, Culkin announced he wanted the part. The role was rewritten
to make it a cute, sinister 12-year-old. Source: Newsweek, December 9, 1991.
- Richard and Connie are played by Macaulay's real-life brother and sister.
- This is the second film in which Culkin dies. He is stung by a bee and dies in the film My
Girl.
- The Good Son is somewhat based on the The Bad Seed.
- The cliff scenes were filmed in Minnesota at Split Rock
Lighthouse between Two Harbors and Silver Bay, Minnesota, and at Palisade Head near the latter
town, both of which have steep cliffs overlooking Lake Superior. The fight on the cliff
between Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood at the end of the film was filmed on the cliff at Split Rock.[2][3] The story was set on the
Atlantic Ocean but a suitable rock face could not be found, and after a search for a
suitable location all over the country, the Minnesota locations were chosen. For the shots looking down at the water, power boats
were used to churn up the water to simulate ocean waves before cameras were rolled. The cliff was 180 feet above water, but the
top ten feet of the cliff was manufactured. It was created on top of the actual cliff out of wood and plaster and coated with a
rubber material so that the actors could roll around on it and fight as needed. The stunt riggers were hidden inside the fake
cliff, controlling safety cables connected to the actors when they were hanging off the side of the cliff and then Macaulay's
character was dropped.
External links
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