My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

Although a description of My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? might suggest it's a David Lynch film—Southern California setting, story based on an actual case, with a cast that includes Willem Dafoe (Wild at Heart) and Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks)—the film is directed by Werner Herzog, who here offers up a desert version of his swamp noir work, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (although Lynch is one of the many credited executive producers). At the outset, Detectives Havenhurst and Vargas (Dafoe and Michael Peña) are called to a murder scene, where they confront actor Brad McCullum (Michael Shannon), who has killed his mother (Zabriskie) with a sword and is now holed up inside her flamingo-pink ranch house with two hostages. Information regarding Brad's motives and thinking may come with the arrival of his fiancée, Ingrid (Chloë Sevigny), and theater director Lee Meyers (Udo Kier). Their fragmented memories lead to flashbacks to Brad's days in Peru, where he found his “inner voice,” and to his acting in the famously matricidal Greek tragedy Oresteia. Although Ernst Reijseger's off-kilter score and Peter Zeitlinger's sun-bleached cinematography add to the queasy fascination here, Herzog's “whydunit” never really takes flight. And yet, various bizarre scenes—including one with galloping ostriches and another with a tiny man in a tuxedo—offer the sort of what-the-heck magic that makes even the lesser movies of Herzog and Lynch more interesting than most. Recommended, overall. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by writer-director Werner Herzog, co-writer Herbert Golder, and producer Eric Bassett, a “Behind the Madness” making-of featurette (28 min.), the short “Plastic Bag” directed by Ramin Bahrani and narrated by Herzog (19 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven but interesting film.] (K. Fennessy)