Son of a Gun | What to Watch

Convict Ewan McGregor takes young Brenton Thwaites under his wing in this Australian crime drama

Convict Ewan McGregor takes young Brenton Thwaites under his wing in this Australian crime drama.

Part gritty prison drama, part hard-boiled gangster thriller and part crafty heist caper, the movie switches genres with ease, pinching from a string of classic crime films as it goes.

Thwaites is convincingly wet-behind-the-ears as a 19-year-old newly imprisoned young offender and McGregor is also believable as the ruthless jailbird.

His protection comes at a price, of course, and the payback embroils Thwaites in a bold prison break and an equally audacious gold-bullion robbery from a desert mine. Yet even riskier is getting mixed up with gangster's moll Alicia Vikander.

Along the way, the plot veers in some far-fetched directions, but first-time writer-director Julius Avery's brisk handling ensures that the narrative never bores.