Vineyard owner favors associate's son over his son.This movie was hard to grade....the brush strokes were too thick for this to be anywhere near a masterpiece. The story had a lot of potential--dommage.The first hurdle I encountered was the two actors playing the son Martin and the "surrogate son" Francois looked identical...it took me a good 15 minutes of concentrated looking to tell them apart (at first I thought one actor was playing both parts). It takes the energy out of you and is a distracting gimmick more than anything else. The actors tried to use their talents to show the difference but it seemed forced and rushed and over the top. (Yes I am aware this feeds into story)--you are to wonder if Francois is an illegitimate son like the Vineyard Owner himself. One big problem for this cleverness is neither actor looked remotely like the Vineyard Owner. The leftie class theme (an unfortunate common item in French film industry) was totally unneeded but mercifully small.The film has almost the feel and quality of a Hallmark movie or a made for TV item--the sound track which I never notice unless it is very bad or very good grated on me--so minus at least 1 star. The disco scene looks hopelessly dated.I watched it for one reason I wanted to see French country-side--- unfortunately a lot of it was digital wizardry--they can create anything anymore---the fog was impressive.RECOMMEND--

Neils Arestrup plays Lear? Not quite, but this exceptional film does rework Shakespeare especially in the sub-plot of Lear involving Gloster's (Shakespeare's spelling) two sons, Edgar and Edmund and the parallel even extends to the Gloster figure, played to perfection by Patrick Chesnais, being terminally ill whereas Gloster was merely blinded. There is so much to admire here not least the comprehensive coverage of running a vineyard - in this aspect we can find comparisons with Moby Dick i.e. part fiction, part documentary - and the acting across the board is of the highest quality. After a long career providing film-enhancing support Arestrup finally gets a chance to strut his stuff in a leading and largely unsympathetic role and is equalled, if not surpassed by Chesnais, another largely unsung French actor who never disappoints and brings lustre to even the most thankless role. In this film Chesnais and Arestrup are the Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas of France and a thousand times better. This is a film almost beyond praise and cannot be recommended too highly.

The film is a well-crafted study of two fathers and two sons. One father owns a prestigious French vineyard but cannot accept or encourage his own son, whom he actually despises, despite the young man's constant attempts to please his father. The other father, terminally ill with cancer, had been estate manager of the vineyard. When his son, who had emigrated and worked for a California winery, returns to visit his dying father, the vineyard owner is so impressed that he attempts to lure the visitor back to France with an impressive job package... including an offer to legally adopt him so that he would share in the inheritance of the vineyard. So now the lines of conflict are neatly in place. One son versus the other. The dying father versus the vineyard owner whom he believes is trying to "steal" away his son... added to the basic conflict between a demanding father and his thankless son. The characters are skillfully drawn and flawlessly acted by a marvelous cast of French players. I thought the direction and photography were superb; you will also learn a lot about the art of growing grapes and producing fine French wines.

With a title borrowed from Kipling ,"Tu Seras Mon Fils" is one of the best French contemporary movies.I have the strange feeling that Gilles Legrand was able,not a small feat,to capture what was great in the old glorious cinema,particularly that of Julien Duvivier , with whom he shares the same pessimism and an unusual depiction of nastiness ,of cruelty ,transferred to the realities of our times.Nils Arestrup,too often cast in supporting parts,gives a terrifying performance of a wealthy man , a viticulturist whose vintage wine he treasures and who despises his son,Martin;He cannot talk to him without demeaning,humiliating him,going as far as to accuse him of causing the death of his mother when they visit her grave ;"you do not belong here;"you're no good at anything" "if you do not know,ask Philippe".Philippe ,the foreman's son ,is exactly the kind of son the father longs for;besides ,Phil's father,is dying of cancer:so why not adopt him and send Martin away from the valuable property?"you change sons as you change your shoes" says the daughter-in-law who desperately supports Martin.The father's game is subtle:when he is awarded the Legion D'Honneur,he takes his new "son" to Paris with him in a luxury hotel (he gives HIS surname to Philippe when he books the rooms),he poses for the press with him by his side ("the newspaper reads "with his son" ,says Phil's mother,they must have made a mistake") Nils Arestrup never overplays but he really makes us believe he is a monster ;the rest of the cast rises to the occasion:Patrick Chesnais ,terminally ill,seeing him take his own son away from him;Valerie Mairesse ,as his wife ,who sees clearer than he does;and the two boys,one very shy with a low self -esteem (two gripping scenes:the self-inflicted wound with the secateurs in the vineyard;the nightmare in which he sees his (monstrous) father trying to drown him in a vat of wine) ;the other one,the fine boy with good prospects, so sure of himself ,who's just back from California where he had a very good job. With an unusually good sense of space (the vineyard is remarkably filmed),a dense screenplay,lines to rival the best of Henri Jeanson,Charles Spaak or Henri-Georges Clouzot,Gilles Legrand blew my mind;Two comments so far !!it would deserve a hundred of them!yes it would!