A young cop is assigned to a precinct in the working class neighborhood where he grew up, and an old secret threatens to destroy his life and his family. A rookie cop is assigned to the 118 Precinct in the same district where he grew up. The Precinct Captain starts receiving letters about two unsolved murders that happened many years ago in the housing projects when the rookie cop was just a kid. These letters bring back bad memories and old secrets that begin to threaten his career and break up his family. THE SON OF NO ONE implodes under its own weight. It is another variation of the tired good cop/bad cop theme and the sins of childhood theme. Despite the presence of a heady cast of high profile actors this story just never takes off. Perhaps that is partially due to the fact that the lead actor role is given to Channing Tatum who though he does show some gradual improvement in learning his acting skills remains a one dimensional character on the screen.<br/><br/>To keep it short, the plot can be condensed as follows: rookie cop Jonathan 'Milk' White (Channing Tatum) is assigned to the 118 Precinct in the same district where he grew up. The Precinct Captain (Ray Liotta) starts receiving anonymous letters about two unsolved murders that happened many years ago in the housing projects when Jonathan was just a kid. A reporter (Juliette Binouce) sees the letters as evidence for an inside cover-up of the two murders from Jonathan's childhood and a detective (Al Pacino) leads the 'investigation' with the corroborated intent of cover-up of police action. There are scenes of flashback to when the murders occurred and the perpetrator is indeed Jonathan as a kid (Jake Cherry) whose only friend is young Vinnie (Brian Gilbert) - the victims were abusive junkies but Jonathan has never been able to forget the gruesome facts. We jump back and forth in time: Jonathan is happily married to Kerry (Katie Holmes) and they have a loving daughter with petit mal seizure disorder. As the investigation proceeds Jonathan fears for his family's safety and for the safety of his old friend Vinnie (now Tracy Morgan). The ending is predictable and far too prolonged.<br/><br/>Despite the presence of Binoche, Pacino, Liotta and Holmes (and a group of very talented youngsters who play the leads as children) the story is just too drawn out and predictable and filled with violence to make it work. Dito Montiel wrote and directed. <br/><br/>Grady Harp Having finished watching The Son of No One, I can't say that I am truly disappointed in what I saw, but I felt the film could have been better. Not having too high expectations because knowing the film did not make a US theater release (made film Festivals- Sundance) but I felt that the talented cast was wasted. The cast is what drew me into watching the film. Also starring in the film is Al Pacino, Ray Liotta, Tracy Morgan, and Katie Holmes.<br/><br/>The Son of No one offers many flashbacks showing Channing Tatum's character Johnathan White as a young child in 1986 (roughly about 14 years old), and we quickly see what happens with the character, as he first kills one stranger as self defense. The other killing he does later in the film also involves self defense in another manner. Fast forward 16 years later and we now see Johnathan White grown and working as a cop, yet still slightly traumatized by this incident. I did not find the excessive use of flashback sequences to be bad but felt the actors acting could have been better (specifically by his friend Vinnie, along with the other girl Vicky).<br/><br/>The ending also bugged me as if they did not know how to end the film or they were running low on budget. From the point on where he see Johnathan confess to his wife (Katie Holmes) about the incident, to then his partner cop taking him down to the force for an interrogation with Captain Marion Mathers (Ray Liotta), and detective Charles Stanford (Al Pacino- who's first encounter with present day Johnathan), everyone spills out. I assumed we were waiting for Johnathan to tell the news which was the build up for but it was Mathers who breaks it. We then hear that Mathers and Stanford simply allow the incident to slip and they tell Johnathan to forgot about it ever happening. They let him off easy because they do not want the news to come out that a cop was in on a murder which happened years ago. Once they allow Johnathan to exit, he then proceeds to leave, get in his vehicle, drive home, but as he is doing so, he gets thoughts in his head and suddenly turns back to where Mathers and Stanford were questioning him. Once he arrives back on scene, he then sees that they both have his friend Vinnie on the roof top hostage and were about to shoot. A few moments of chatter occurs discussing the situation. What eventually proceeds to happen is that Vinnie shoots and kills Mathers, then Stanford shoots and knocks Vinnie down from the roof top to the ground killing him. Johnathan being stunned by his friend being dead, we see the anger in Tatum's face as he is exiting away from Stanford. Fast forward a few scenes later and we see a brief scene of Vicky writing and confessing that she was the one who was sending letters towards Johnathan (meaning Vinnie kept his word and was innocent- Vicky was the one who basically got three people killed because of her misdoings). Afterwards, the letter gets sent, Johnathan picks it up, reads it then the film ends.<br/><br/>The storyline makes too much of a big deal surrounding an incident that happened when he was younger and in a form self defense. It is interesting watching it all unfold, though it could have been more suspenseful. The Son of No one was more of a cop drama than a cop thriller. With better story telling and a better script, this film could have been something special. I did find the acting from the cast all really well which is what makes the film more enjoyable. It's kind of fun to watch Pacino and Liotta and Tatum and James Ransone, as Jonathan's foulmouthed partner, as they roar at each other and suck the marrow from the hambone. You can see why actors want to work with Montiel, but actors are notoriously bad judges of whether good scenes will ever add up to a worthwhile movie, which is exactly the problem here.
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370 weeks ago