The Elder Son Review

The Elder Son Review (2006)
Director: Maryus Vaysberg
Writers: Maryus Vaysberg, Scott Sturgeon (based on the play by Alexander Vampilov)
Starring: Shane West, Leelee Sobieski, Rade Serbedzija, Eric Balfour, Regina Hall, Brian Geraghty, Ed Begley Jr.
Release Date: October 31, 2006
Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes

Continuing the Leelee Sobieski rewatch series, The Elder Son is something a little different from everything else we have covered. There’s no real tension here and we are firmly outside of the thriller zone. This is a light, breezy comedy drama that asks very little of you and delivers a pleasant enough hour and a half in return.

The setup is the kind of thing that only really works in comedies. Bo (Shane West) is a small time car thief who finds himself on the run from the police and talks his way into the home of Max (Rade Serbedzija), a Russian immigrant and recently fired clarinetist, by claiming to be his long lost son. Max, to the bafflement of everyone around him, takes the claim at face value and welcomes Bo into the family. The complications that follow are exactly what you would expect; Bo starts to genuinely like the family he conned his way into, and things get considerably more complicated when he develops feelings for Max’s daughter Lolita, played by Leelee, who is technically now his supposed sister.

It is based on a play by Alexander Vampilov and that theatrical DNA is evident throughout. The film is contained, character driven, and lives or dies entirely on whether the cast can carry the material. Fortunately the cast can. Rade Serbedzija as Max is the heart of the whole thing. There is a warmth and a gentle dignity to his performance that makes Max the kind of character you easily root for, and the way he plays Max’s unconditional acceptance of Bo (knowing somewhere underneath that none of it quite adds up) is endearing. Serbedzija is one of those actors who elevates everything he is in and The Elder Son is no exception.

Shane West does good work here too. Bo is a character who needs to be charming enough that you understand why Max accepts him and likeable enough that you want things to work out for him, and West threads that needle well. It is a more naturalistic performance than a lot of his work and it suits the material. It’s in a way similar to his role in A Walk to Remember, in that that he starts off a jerk but not really a bad guy and so you want to see things work out for him.

And then there is Leelee Sobieski. This is about as far from The Glass House or In A Dark Place (which came out in the same year) as you can get, and that is actually part of what makes The Elder Son worth including in this series. Lolita is a lighter, more relaxed role; she’s a young woman who wants to escape her chaotic family and has complicated feelings about the stranger who just walked into it. She doesn’t believe Bo’s story from the beginning, but goes with it for her father’s sake. It’s fun to see Leelee in something that is not asking her to carry enormous dramatic or suspenseful weight. She is charming and natural throughout and has easy chemistry with West, which is essential given where the story goes.

The rest of the cast fills out nicely. Eric Balfour as Bo’s partner in crime adds some good comic energy, Regina Hall does solid work in a smaller role, and Ed Begley Jr. shows up and does exactly what you need Ed Begley Jr. to do.

The plot is what it is: a standard comedy drama premise that doesn’t reinvent the wheel or try to. There are some subplots that go in directions the film probably did not need to go, and the whole thing is a little rough around the edges in the way that low budget indie comedies often are. But it moves fast, is never boring, and the performances make it worth the time.

The Elder Son is a fun, quick watch that is worth seeing at least once, particularly if you are working your way through Leelee’s filmography the way we have been in this series. It is not her best work but it is a pleasant reminder that she had real range and that not everything she appeared in needed to be a dramatic/thriller showcase to be enjoyable.

The Elder Son gets a three out of five: GOOD.