The Movie
Werner Herzog's collaboration with David Lynch (who acted as producer for this movie) is a challenging watch - and sadly one doesn't feel like it yields much to even the most patient viewer. Inspired by the real-life matricide committed by troubled San Diego actor Mark Yavorsky, My Son stars wild-eyed Michael Shannon, with Yavorsky rechristened "Brad McCullum" and the part of his to-be-skewered mom played by Grace Zabriskie. The screenplay by Herzog and Herbert Golder seeks to draw a line between Brad's role in a production of the Oresteia the the compulsion to kill that later gripped him.
Shannon's performance lays bare the profound madness of Brad and is one of the only roles that comes across as natural. His behavior, his odd asides and broken pacing feel like a product of his madness. However the rest of the cast is tasked (intentionally by Mr. Herzog, it would seem) with bringing a layer of stylization to their roles. Line readings are often stiff and terse, and scenes are weighted with deliberate pacing which often underlies and even embodies the madness of Brad but at the same time push us further and further out of the narrative.
The problem, I suppose is that the only times we see Brad, he's caught in the grip of his insanity and his obsessions. He believes he's receiving messages from God (or gods) and increasingly acts on his compulsions. The people around him - including Ingrid, his girlfriend (Chloe Svigny) and the play's director Lee (Udo Kier) - see that there's something profoundly unbalanced in the young man and his co-dependent relationship with his mother but neither says or does anything to help him. Was he always like this when he met his Ingrid, and if so, what was the attraction? If not, why hasn't she bailed on him.
It's not, strictly speaking, a mystery, although the jumps in chronology anchored by a the film's opening hostage standoff would occasionally give it that feeling. The structure of the film doesn't even start at the question of "how did Brad become crazy" but instead "how was his madness affected by art?" But watching it, I constantly felt as if I was on the outside, that I was incapable of keeping pace. If the focus was on the intersection of art and madness, why so many shots of and references to birds? Why so much attention to the lingering beauty of Peru? Why could no one see that Brad was quite clearly troubled?
While impeccably-cast and beautifully-shot, I could never really get into the movie, since it felt like Herzog was creating too many layers between me as the viewer and the viewing experience.
Special Features
In addition to running commentary from Herzog, this disc also includes a 30 minute interview with Herzog and co-writer Herbert Golder, where the duo elaborate on the origins of the movie, starting with Golder's fascination with the murder that inspired to the film. He discusses tracking down Mark Yavorsky, a mentally-ill man released from prison who continues to be trapped by his obsessions.
More than anything else, this feature is worth the sit, as Herzog is an expansive interviewee and seems genuinely passionate about this collaboration and the opportunity to work with David Lynch (who's sadly not on-camera).
There's also a short, entitled Plastic Bag narrated by Herzog and directed by Ramin Bahrani which had me thinking about Ricky Fitts the entire time.