I found this movie aggravating. The head of a French vineyard constantly belittles his son - near the end, we find out that it is at least in part because the father lost his wife in part because of his son's ill health. The father eventually favors the son of his foreman. But the son is not presented in a sympathetic way, and though his situation is unfair, we never get a chance to really feel for him.

The acting is all fine, and some of the shots of Provence are wonderful. There were the makings here of a much better movie, but that would have required rethinking the script, and therefore probably finding a better director.

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I watched this movie again this evening, and that gave me no reason to improve my previous opinion of it. The only reason this movie works at all is because the lead, Niels Arestrup, has so much charisma, that you remain interested in his thoroughly disagreeable character despite his many flaws; had a less charismatic actor played the role, the character would have been so hard to stomach that I doubt anyone would have sat through the movie.

On the other hand, Lorànt Deutsch, who plays his son, comes across as having no charisma whatsoever. (What makes his extremely attractive and intelligent wife stay with him the movie never begins to make clear.) As a result, it is very hard to feel sorry for him, even through his father treats him like dirt for no good reason.

This is just a dissatisfying movie. A shame, because there were the makings of an interesting story here.

Gilles Legrand delivers with Tu Seras Mon Fils a poignant drama carried an excellent duo of actors whose performances are oozing accuracy, the always masterful Niels Arestrup, frightening as an authoritarian and despising patriarch, and Lorànt Deutsch, touching as a constantly demeaned son.

The viewer ends up completely carried away by this polished familial tragedy where the implacable unfolding of the plot and the striking dialogues totally captivate from end to end. However, certain motivations are a bit hard to assimilate and the purpose of the opening scene is questionable because it incomprehensibly reveals the twist of the movie, which by the way could be regarded as a bit sloppy.

All in all, Tu Seras Mon Fils overall is solid and deserves more consideration than the press critics tried to convince us.

There's a grim tale well-told in 'You Will be My Son': that of an egotistical wine-maker whose love of his craft exceeds that for his son, and to such an extent that he feels under no obligation to hide it. The film pivots around these two points, indulging a sense of love for the craft of traditional wine-making, but portraying the father's behaviour in an utterly unsympathetic light. But the son is a bit too craven to be interesting: he has a mysteriously beautiful wife, and his refusal to leave, and preference to stay around and be bullied instead, is a bit mystifying; ultimately the film perhaps shares with its characters a sense that patrimony is at heart the proper way of the world. The ambiguous ending, however, is well-judged.