The Son of No One features two actors that seem to give it their all – Pacino and Liotta – with the others doing their best with what they have. The storyline doesn’t hold up too well and the gaps in logic are so huge that it’s hard to ignore. At best I’d recommend a rental but to keep expectations in check.
The Son of No One (2011)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Crime, Drama
Anchor Bay | R – 94 min. – $29.99 | February 22, 2012
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Dito Montiel
Writer(s): Dito Montiel (written by)
Cast: Channing Tatum, Tracy Morgan, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche, Al Pacino
Theatrical Release Date: November 4, 2011
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentary, Deleted Scenes
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.35
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 2.25/5
“You know what a mucky pup is, Officer? It’s the son of a copper. You… you look like the son of no one.” – Loren Bridges (Juliette Binoche)
Maybe it’s a regional divide or because I’m not as in tuned to the police community or something, but what the hell does that mean? Sure, it sounds good and makes for an interesting movie title, but days later I still haven’t a clue what it actually means. I suppose it’s a clever way of saying he’s lost in life (something a French reporter is able to tell in only two visits). Oh well, not that it matters much because The Son of No One is one dull movie that goes nowhere slowly.
The story takes place, for whatever reason, in 2002 a few months after the events of 9/11 and centers on NYPD Officer Jonathan “Milk” White (CHANNING TATUM) a 30-year-old rookie cop with lovely wife Kerry (KATIE HOLMES) and a daughter (URSURLA PARKER) who suffers from seizures. The pre-credits begin back in 1986 in downtrodden Queensbury where we meet a young Jonathan hold up in the bathroom with a gun. A manic, drug addict pushes his way into the apartment past Jonathan’s friends, Vinny and Vicky, and breaks into the bathroom where Jonathan shoots the man dead.
Investigating the death is Detective Charles Stanford (AL PACINO) who was the partner of Jonathan’s deceased father, and immediately knows Jonathan is involved but decides to cover it up since they’re basically like family. And as Stanford explains, why not? The guy killed is a no good junkie. Of course, things become more complicated when the addict’s drug dealer knows what’s what; he too came into the apartment (really screwy that people just barge into these places willy-nilly) not too long after the shooting and finds the gun using it as leverage as the addict owed him $300 for drugs and now wants Jonathan to pay the bill.
Well, in rotten luck, later in the film, young Jonathan gets into a scuffle with the dealer and accidentally kills him after knocking down a staircase. Now there are two murders in the complex and Jonathan is the prime suspect, and yet Stanford once again covers the crime up but lets him know that he knows what’s going on and that one day they’ll meet again when Jonathan is an adult with his own secrets.
Back to 2002, Jonathan is working at his father’s old precinct. It’s a chaotic station with rampant misconduct and is far from where he currently lives in the suburbs. It was by no coincidence why he was transferred to the precinct, run by Captain Marion Mathers (RAY LIOTTA) – who is up for the top job from the outgoing Stanford. For some reason, 16 years after the fact, somebody is sending anonymous letters to a small newspaper outfit run by Loren Bridges (JULIETTE BINOCHE) who has no love for the NYPD and investigates transgressions especially in that precinct.
What follows is a slow evolving, convoluted series of events which in themselves are frankly boring. For instance, there comes a point when Jonathan tries to get to the bottom of who is sending the letters leading him to childhood friend Vincent (TRACY MORGAN) who has some emotional/mental issues. After meeting with him, Jonathan returns to his car where another car behind slams into him causing Jonathan to black out. He awakens to find an article with a new letter with the handwritten warning asking what is he doing about it. First, seems like an extreme thing to do. What if the crasher gets severely hurt? How about Jonathan? There was blood on the cracked windshield and he could’ve been killed. Why not just bust the window and leave the note inside while Jonathan was talking with Vincent?
On paper it might’ve worked but on film it wasn’t logical. And that’s really the crux of The Son of No One, very little of the storyline, character motivations made any sense. What I described above was the least spoiler of them but there’s another in the final act which made me asked, “Why?” Of course, it doesn’t help matters that despite the cast, I couldn’t care less about any of them.
Speaking of which, I have to wonder how they managed to get a respectable cast together in the first place. Yeah, not surprising Producer/Writer/Director Dito Montiel would get Channing Tatum since the pair worked together on Fighting or even Tracy Morgan (that role was originally going to be played by Terrence Howard who smartly dropped out) and Ray Liotta whose career of late has almost solely been starring in ensemble pieces. What about Juliette Binoche or Al Pacino?
Now, with regards to the actual performances, I thought each one did the best they could with what they had to work with. Al Pacino proves once again that he hasn’t gone down the wretched road that fellow veteran Robert De Niro seems to have all but given up on his career. Pacino for his part, and in a small role that adds up to maybe 10-minutes of screen time, is one of only two that seemed to give a full and lively performance (the other was Liotta). Channing Tatum as the primary character was alright but pretty forgettable. To be fair, I’m not sure how many others in his age range who could’ve done better.
In the end, The Son of No One is an adequately made movie with two good performances and a few very forgettable ones, though in fairness the screenplay and plotline didn’t exactly help matters. I think the problem with the movie was they took what was an episode of “NYPD Blue” and stuffed it into a 90-minute feature-length movie with recognizable faces. This is a movie that’s not really bad but more of missed opportunities than anything else.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5
The only features included is a standard, yet informative, audio commentary with writer/producer/director Dito Montiel and producer/editor Jake Pushinsky. The pair offers up insight into making the movie, working with the various actors, etc. Also included are a selection of Extended Scenes (6:27; SD) and the theatrical trailer (2:29; HD).
Previews – Catch .44, Kill the Irishman, Texas Killing Fields, The Divide
VIDEO – 3.75/5
Presented in its original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio, this MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer of The Son of No One looks alright if not a bit soft at times. The detail level in most scenes is pretty good but there are others that don’t look right. I think this has more to do with the shooting style than a poor transfer, and this is one that doesn’t exactly translate the best in HD. Having said that, I do think the color array is well balanced and the black levels are well done showing no signs of artifacting or pixilation.
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track comes across respectable enough with clear audio coming mainly through the center channel while when we do get some action, such as gunshots, that’s when the front channels get going while the rear speakers are used for ambient noises and the score.
OVERALL – 2.5/5
Overall, The Son of No One features two actors that seem to give it their all – Pacino and Liotta – with the others doing their best with what they have. The storyline doesn’t hold up too well and the gaps in logic are so huge that it’s hard to ignore. At best I’d recommend a rental but to keep expectations in check. As far as the Blu-ray goes, the video and audio transfers are acceptable enough while the features are, once again from Anchor Bay, limited.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 02/10/2012
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.