SYNOPSICS
Just Like the Son (2006) is a English movie. Morgan J. Freeman has directed this movie. Mark Webber,Antonio Ortiz,Brendan Sexton III,Rosie Perez are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2006. Just Like the Son (2006) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
"Just Like the Son" chronicles twenty year-old Daniel Carter's (Webber) attempt to help an eight year-old, Boone (Ortiz), find a better life. Daniel First meets Boone while doing community service at an East Village grade school. The boys strike up a friendship during which Daniel learns that Boone's mother is sick and may be hospitalized. He also learns that Boone has an older sister, Charlotte, who lives in Dallas. When Boone does not show up for school a few days later, Daniel begins to ask questions and learns that Boone was placed into a temporary foster care in Upstate New York. After being turned down as an adoption candidate, and failing to convince his Father to help him gain custody, Daniel decides to rescue Boone from the orphanage. He puts all his street smarts to use and they head to Dallas. While the goal is to locate Boone's sister, the heart of the story is the unexpected bond Daniel and Boone form throughout their road trip adventure.
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Just Like the Son (2006) Reviews
Another awesome road movie from Freeman
Morgan J. Freeman delivers a heartfelt road movie about twenty yr old small time criminal Daniel (Mark Webber) who drives a 6 yr. old orphan (Antonio Ortiz) across country to reunite the boy with his sister. Daniel works as a janitor at an elementary school, doing his 240 hrs of community service painting over graffiti and reading to the kids. A bond forms between Daniel and young Boone, a fatherless boy who is about to lose his mom. When Boone is taken to an orphanage, Daniel takes matters into his own hands and drives Boone from NY to FLA, where Boone's sister lives. The pleasures are simple as Daniel and Boone enjoy life on the road. The film has a sweet, dappled 70's vibe as the two camp out, go shopping, and jump on hotel beds. The characters are honestly drawn and memorably portrayed. Webber is especially likable as a young man at the crossroads. Morgan's previous film, Piggy Banks, is also a road movie, although much different in tone. It's about two young brothers who happen to be serial killers. It's an incredible, tense, enlightening film about a much different kind of life on the road. Freeman has really hit his stride with these two road movies.
Learning responsibility by being really, really, really irresponsible.
This is a film directed by Morgan Freeman. No, not THAT Morgan Freeman- -this one is Morgan J. Freeman and looks absolutely nothing like the famous one. Perhaps he, too, will be famous...though I doubt if this film will help him along this path. Mark Webber stars as Daniel--a very, very irresponsible guy with a long record for petty crimes. Inexplicably, while he's working at a local elementary school (what school would hire him?!), he meets a cute kid, Boone (Antonio Ortiz). Boone is a kid who has been in and out of the foster care system and he tells Daniel it has something to do with his mother being sick. The two spend some time together and Daniel really likes the kid. However, the kid soon disappears from the school and presumably went back into the foster care system--so what does Daniel do? Well, without finding out exactly what Boone's story is, Daniel decides to kidnap the kid and take him to some relative in Dallas. However, Boone is only 6 and exactly who this person is and if they are at all responsible never goes through Daniel's pea-sized mind. Instead, he just KNOWS that he needs to get the kid to Dallas even if it means breaking 168 laws in the process. What follows is a cute buddy film with some very nice acting-- particularly by Ortiz. However, this cannot make up for the fact that the film seems to be endorsing kidnapping and features a lot of irresponsible stuff--presumably because Daniel is working out his own issues through the kid (oh, isn't that healthy!). So, it's a very mixed bag--with some nice moments but it also makes no sense whatsoever. It makes you wonder if perhaps the film could have been a lot better had the script been rewritten.
Echoes of '70s golden age; Webber gives a heartfelt performance; Freeman a talent to watch
JUST LIKE THE SON (2007) - *** FILM REVIEW BY GEORGE SCHMIDT Daniel Carter (Mark Webber) is a young man on a path to nowhere fast who is trying the patience of the judicial system for his continuous streak of misdemeanors landing him thisclose to a for-real prison sentence and his father Bill (Bruce MacVittie) has lost his patience to the point that Daniel realizes he must move out and fulfill his 240 hours of assigned community service. In the interim he stays with his best friend, Grant Bills (Brendan Sexton III) in his small apartment in Greenwich Village, where he can crash as he preps himself to face being a janitor in a public school where he is under the supervision of the principal, Mrs. Ponders (Rosie Perez), who is a no-nonsense type who sets the tone that if he doesn't do as he's supposed to there will be trouble. One day she asks Daniel to watch over a class of young children as she awaits a substitute teacher to arrive. Daniel at first is supposed to simply stand guard outside the classroom but when he sees a small boy, who he met previously in the bathroom, being harassed, Daniel doesn't think or hesitate and enters the room, telling the kids to settle down and behave themselves. Momentarily Mrs. Ponders returns and at first admonishes Daniel for taking a large leap at responsibility, but then sees how he managed to put the class in order acquiesces by allowing him to read a book aloud to the children. Daniel seems to have found a new home and surprisingly enjoying the moment to the point that the sub even says he's welcome anytime to pop in and read to the kids. Daniel begins to befriend the little boy, Boone (Antonio Ortiz), a seemingly happy, mulatto with a huge 'fro and a smile to with it. The two bond quickly even to the point of Boone informing Daniel that his mother is sick and he may have to return to foster care. When Daniel discovers it the next day that Boone is not in school and Mrs. Ponders will not share the reasons why, he puts two and two together and decides to find the boy for himself. What follows is a funny, heartfelt and joyful 'kidnapping' by Daniel after Grant obliges to drive him upstate to locate Boone first and the purpose he assumes to have in his lackadaisical life is in keeping the child for himself. The two forge a tight, loving relationship as they drive cross-country to find Boone's estranged older sister. Filmmaker Morgan J. Freeman offers a throwback in a way to '70s era road trips and dysfunctional family films echoing Cassavettes, Bogdonavich and Spielberg but sure- handedly making the film his own with a breezy, carefree tone throughout with just the right amount of tension on the edges as one feels the dread of Daniel & Boone's odyssey of self- discovery to be yanked out from their footing. In the meantime it is a fun, endearingly lovely and at times poignant character study in depicting a young man who may never had the love he so desperately wants to give to another human being, someone who is not even his blood, to show how meaningful life can be, even when he has nothing to show for it. Webber, an amiable sort perhaps best known as the 'is he or isn't he' long-lost son of Bill Murray in "Broken Flowers", proves to be a decent actor recalling traces of the aforementioned golden age's Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman and Richard Dreyfuss anti-heroic heroes; men who don't want to follow but to lead but just don't know how to do it properly. His Daniel may be impulsive but he is not stupid; he knows ultimately the price to pay in the long run which makes the trip all too bittersweet. Newcomer Ortiz is a treasure; a real natural with no trace of precocity which is in itself a sigh of relief. He counterbalances his scenes with Webber nicely and more importantly, believably. An organic relationship at is basic core: unrequited love. The clear-eyed cinematography by Yaron Orbach, rustic peaceful music by Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham and yeoman like editing by Sloane Klevin compliment the actors and director's vision. My only gripe is it goes too fast there could've been more character development (i.e. mostly in the fine assembled ensemble particularly Perez who is at best a glorified cameo). The film as a whole is a small gem that seems a fitting valentine to '70s films and as itself a unique look at what it means to be someone who tries to do the right thing when the reality is he already has.