- Starring
- Paul Fronczak
- Director
- Ursula Macfarlane
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 98 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s SXSW Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
The theme of identity has been depicted in countless documentaries with the recent standout being 2018’s phenomenal Three Identical Strangers. The Lost Sons is another documentary that goes back to the theme of identity with some of those same emotional highpoints though without the same depth to leave enough of an impact. This all stems from a less well-rounded narrative whose lack of depth and/or focus made it difficult to fully invest emotionally. The film follows the saga of Paul Fronczak, a man who believed all his life to have been a baby who was kidnapped from a Chicago hospital in 1964 before authorities believed to have found him abandoned in New Jersey two years later. Despite that doubt, he still lived a happily life but it he always felt there was something that never quite felt right. It wasn’t until a DNA test that Paul’s suspicion was confirmed, proving that he wasn’t that kidnapped baby much to the chagrin of his former parents thus prompting the obvious question of where is the missing baby and what led to the other baby being abandoned in New Jersey.
The Lost Sons was as much a mystery tale as it was one about a man still struggling with finding his own identity. Not spending too much time either way, the former was much more compelling to watch but once the two came together following that sudden discovery, the film was ultimately at its best. In spite of lagging in the middle while trying to find itself, the film was still packed with emotional moments that are sure to still strike a cord with audiences, leading up to some semblance of closure. That being said, the full mystery remains unsolved to this day. In the end, what will likely keep viewers engaged was Paul himself and his immense likability.
However, that’s just not enough as far as The Lost Sons is concerned.
still courtesy of SXSW
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.