My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
  • Release Date: Dec 11, 2009
Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
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  1. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    100
    It’s likely that only Herzog would dare to, and succeed at, resolving this singular cinematic object by contemplating the fate of an abandoned basketball.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    Confounds all convention and denies all expected pleasures, providing instead the delight of watching Herzog feed the police hostage formula into the Mixmaster of his imagination.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    As nutty as you'd expect when two of our most eccentric auteurs join forces.
  4. NPR
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    70
    Photographed with bare-bones simplicity by longtime Herzog collaborator Peter Zeitlinger, My Son presents yet another Herzogian hero who views insanity as the only logical response to an insane world.
  5. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    Everything about this berserk, essentially static procedural is just crazy enough to be true. In any case, Herzog has gone beyond Good and Evil to reinvent himself as a candidate for the wiggiest director of comedy in America today.
  6. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    67
    Viewers will have to decide for themselves whether My Son is a terrible, terrible movie or an uncompromising Herzog experiment in reality-bending. Here’s a suggestion: consider the track record.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    60
    If someone else had made "My Son," it would be just another crime thriller based on a true story. But with Werner Herzog behind the camera, it's a head-scratcher from start to finish.
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    50
    The story is riddled with salutes to executive producer David Lynch and the film seems pointed hopefully in the direction of Lynch's audiences.
  9. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    50
    Flawed, flaky and exasperating, it's held together by two powerful eccentrics.
  10. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    By the end of this film/experiment/prank – which, to be blunt, is pretty unsatisfying – the viewer is left to ponder what it's all about, and what its purpose may have been, which, knowing Lynch and Herzog, might well be what it was about, and what its purpose was.
  11. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gary Goldstein
    50
    What is unexpected, however, is that the film manages to be flat and uninteresting, despite the juicy (or, at the very least, lurid) true story from 1979 that serves as this curio's inspiration.
  12. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    While watching Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done you might be tempted to murmur, “My Werner, My Werner, What Have Ye Done.”
  13. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    30
    Even Herzog loyalists will have to concede that this fact-based 2009 hostage drama is a serious dud.

User Reviews

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User Score
5.5 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 2 out of 2
  1. cabrita
    3
    A film overflowing with ambition but Herzog's crazy back storys about nothing quickly loose their novelty and the close to 2 hour running time becomes a drag. I still look forward to a Herzog film however. Over ambition is not always a good thing and My son my son what have ye done is a perfect example.… Full Review »
  2. jonp.
    2
    This movie is shockingly bad. The story line is a mess, and what little story one gets is supremely uninteresting. The main character is a guy in his 30s who acts like a marginally functional 12-year-old. His "obviously crazy" pronouncements and behavior are very dull and they are usually portrayed through flash backs. Flash back is anachronistic and annoying to begin with, especially when it is used to flesh out a character as one-dimensional and uninteresting as "Brad." The women around Brad do nothing but humor his weird behavior, which has the unfortunate result of dragging the movie out in a most frustrating way. Chloe Sevigny, who plays Brad's love interest, just floats along with his ravings in a somnolent, unconvincing performance (we're supposed to believe that this attractive young woman has no better option than to stick around and watch Brad's disintegration). Grace Zabriskie, an actress who has made a career out of playing lunatic women, tags along as a very David Lynchesque mother figure (which is no accident since David Lynch is the movie's executive producer). I saw this movie based on the fact that Werner Herzog directed it, despite serious reservations about the presence of the now very overexposed Willem Dafoe. "My Son, My Son..." reminded me that Herzog, while brilliant, is also very uneven. He has produced great stuff and really terrible stuff. Unfortunately, this movie belongs in the latter category. Do not be misled by generally positive reviews -- avoid this movie like the plague!… Full Review »
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