Review: The Son of No One

Mostly set soon after America was rocked by the events of 9/11, Channing Tatum plays a cop who has recently relocated to the Queensbridge projects in Queens, where he grew up. It wasn’t a good upbringing, with Tatum still feeling the effects of a troubled past, despite having moved on to become a married man to Katie Holmes and father to their ill little girl. Tatum is forced to confront his past, however, when the police are informed that a nosy reporter (Juliette Binoche) has started to receive letters hinting of a double murder, police corruption, and a cover-up from 1986. We venture back to 86 so we know that Tatum (or his child counterpart, played by Jake Cherry) was somehow involved in this unsolved crime from long ago (Truth be told, we know exactly how he was involved too). Also aware is Tatum’s troubled childhood friend, played as a boy by Brian Gilbert, and Tracy Morgan as an adult. Is he the one threatening to expose Tatum’s secret? Or someone else? And who is making threatening phone calls to Tatum and his family? Ray Liotta plays Tatum’s cranky boss, who is royally pissed that this long-ago incident is being dredged up again. Al Pacino plays a shadowy, somewhat sinister cop who investigated the crime, and tells young Cherry that he was a friend of his dead father (also a cop).

 

Beware any film starring Al Pacino and Channing Tatum that barely gets a theatrical release in the US (direct-to-DVD in Australia), especially when it comes from Millennium Films/Nu Image, who really are the modern day Cannon Group/Golan-Globus. And as with all films from the company, the better the cast looks, the crappier the film will be. Just look at “88 Minutes” and “Righteous Kill”. The latter wasn’t that bad, but the cast was superlative on paper. Such is the case here, with a lot of interesting and talented actors besieged by mediocre material. Written and directed by Dito Montiel (who has directed Tatum three times, including “Fighting”), it’s based on an unpublished novel by Mr. Montiel, and that may be the problem. There was clearly no one objective enough to realise that this just isn’t much good. The narrative is far too choppy, the plot centres around an annoying contrivance, and once you find out what has been covered up and why (which won’t take long), you have to wonder what all the fuss was about. There’s nothing terribly shocking, or completely awful going on, and it left me scratching my head wondering what the necessity of all this was. For all the shadowy and conspiratorial goings on, the reveal proves to be actually not all that sinister, or even all that necessary with such a build-up. You expect “Wild Things”-esque twists, because surely this can’t be all there is. Sadly, it is. Maybe what is revealed is something that would need to be exposed in real-life (corruption and cover-up is bad, after all), but that doesn’t mean it’s exciting or interesting enough for a movie, especially in a genre full of stories like this already. Hell, the flashback scenes tell the most interesting part of the story. That would’ve been an interesting movie, especially given young Cherry gives one of the best performances in the entire film, even better than Tatum playing the character as an adult.

 

Meanwhile, a certain phone call comes from someone with a voice that immediately spoils any potential surprise. Oopsy. It feels like there’s actually no mystery, even to the characters in the film. Am I missing something, or is everyone here just thick? I thought it was pretty damn obvious right away who was doing what, even if I didn’t know the specifics, and I was watching the characters play catch-up the rest of the length, and then disappointed when the destination finally arrived. True, we find out there’s a reason why things were made a little obvious to the Tatum character, but the way it plays out, it’s too obvious to the audience as well, and it makes you think Tatum’s just a complete moron, given that he kinda knows what is going on already, and could probably go a long way to solving things much earlier if it really bothered him that much. You’ll know what I mean when you see the film, but suffice to say that Tatum’s reaction late in the film to certain goings on rings mega-hollow given he surely knew about most of it early on and could’ve done something about it then. Like I said, the identity of the phone caller is entirely transparent, but then again, we know who the murderer is too from the flashbacks early in the film. None of this is a mystery, though you feel like it’s meant to be. I just don’t know what merit I was meant to see in this film.

 

Also, the music score is so incredibly bad that Al Pacino’s character practically has the ‘Imperial March’ theme accompanying him. Pacino’s creepy enough without that overkill. Ray Liotta gives the best performance in the film (for once he seems genuinely committed), and even his character is heavy-handed right from his first scene. He has a nice, a-hole quality to him on screen here that I found compelling, even if the character was overwritten. I also think the central character’s name should’ve been changed to Murphy, as in Murphy’s Law, because his whole damn life seemed to exemplify it. Oliver Twist had a more fortunate childhood than this kid. You can see why Millennium associated themselves with the film, and why it pretty much up and died on release. The weight of the cast falls down on top of it, and it feels like it should be longer, as it comes across as rather episodic and superficial.

 

Aside from Liotta (who looks like he has eaten both Paul Sorvino and Joe Pesci) and young Cherry, the best performance comes from a surprisingly serious Tracy Morgan (that “SNL” comedian so hilarious on TV but not nearly as funny in movies, for some reason), whose quietness is both sad and rather spooky, for such a normally megaphone loud performer. He’s actually quite good. The film isn’t much good, but he and Liotta bring their A-games at least.

 

Channing Tatum is OK but nothing more, he probably hoped this was the role that was going to catapult him into being taken more seriously. I can see why he might’ve thought that, but he would be wrong. I’m glad to see he’s trying, though, and maybe one day it’ll work out for him. Staying away from Nicholas Sparks adaptations would probably be a step in the right direction. Katie Holmes, meanwhile, looks shockingly unglamorous and like she hadn’t slept in ten days. She tries her best, but isn’t cast to her best advantage for such a charismatic actress. Al Pacino is only here for two reasons (three if he owes Millennium money or something); 1) He’s freakin’ Al Pacino, and 2) He was “Serpico”. Anyone could’ve played his part, for the scant amount of time he’s on screen. The actor playing Tatum’s foul-mouthed partner is especially bad, and looks alarmingly like a younger and skinnier version of WWE Superstar Alberto Del Rio, which is just weird. I don’t know whose bright idea it was to cast the very French Juliette Binoche as a hard-boiled Queens journo named Lauren Bridges, but they’re a fucking idiot. Terrible miscasting there, as Ms. Binoche is simply laughable in a role apparently originally written (and largely unchanged) for a male, which explains a bit. I could believe Binoche as Christiane Armanpour, perhaps, but a Noo Yawker? Uh-uh.

 

With material so poor that it wouldn’t even make it to subpar Sidney Lumet level (think “Prince of the City” but even worse), a heavy-handed and choppy approach, this film isn’t any good. I could never get past the central contrivance of the film. I couldn’t buy it happening. Given most of the names in the cast, it really should’ve been good, and the air of expectation with that cast in mind ultimately crushes what is really ordinary stuff. The location shooting showing a multicultural New York is interesting (nice overhead shots of the projects), but the film isn’t, outside of the flashbacks.

 

Rating: C