THE SON OF NO ONE DVD (2011)
SYNOPSIS: In this 'Exhilarating and Powerful' police thriller, Jonathan is a second-generation cop who gets in over his head when he's assigned to re-open a double homicide cold in his Queens neighbourhood. An anonymous source feeding new information regarding the long-unsolved murders to a local reporter leads to evidence suggesting a cover-up by the former lead detective. As Jonathan digs deeper into the assignment, a dark secret about the case emerges which threatens to destroy his life and his family.
MOVIE REVIEW:
2012 is a good year for Channing Tatum. The Step Up actor finally proved himself to be both a credible actor and star following a string of hits including “The Vow”, “21 Jump Street” and “Magic Mike”. If not for that, we probably won’t get a chance to see him in this indie cop drama, “The Son Of No One”.
Tatum is not alone here. Joining him is the great Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Juliette Binoche, Ray Liotta and Tracy Morgan. It’s a cast that even a Hollywood blockbuster would kill for. The excellent acting ranging from the usually wooden Tatum to the seldom seen dramatic side of Morgan is a plus. Pacino and Liotta on the other hand are no strangers to the roles they played here simply they had played it countless times before. French actress Binoche hardly leave much of an impression and Holmes dropped a couple of F-words to prove she is no longer that young teenage girl in “Dawson’s Creek” who married and unmarried Tom Cruise.
However it’s the script that lets everyone down in the end. Written and directed by Tatum’s frequent collaborator, Dito Montiel, the story suffers from gaping plot holes and loose ends that never quite tied up. Tatum plays Jonathan White, a married NYPD rookie cop who is assigned to Queens, a notoriously menacing neighbourhood in which he grew up. White has a dark secret unknown to many; he killed two drug junkies when he was a young kid. Though covered up by his partner of his deceased dad, the past came back to haunt him in the form of anonymous letters being sent to a small-time tabloid paper. That’s when Montiel’s own ambitious narratives with issues such as child abuse, drug abuse, mental illness start to clutter the whole cliché script.
The story takes audience back to 1996 and then back to 2002 constantly, there’s nothing repulsive about this arrangement in fact Montiel did a commendable juggling between two timelines. The child actors who portrayed the younger version of White and his buddy, Vinny is extremely convincing. What’s glaring is why an Inspector (played by Pacino) needs to cover up a crime involving a pint-sized underage boy killing two adult junkies. Seriously, who would believe that in the first place? Is Montiel trying to drive home the message of serving and protecting one another in the police force? And what is the motivational behind the letters? The movie opens up too many questions and rarely answered any of them. The gunplay in the finale just makes things even messier and murkier. It’s one movie that the numerous actors’ fine acting couldn’t save the day.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD extras consist of seven minutes of Extended Scenes and a Trailer.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The intended wash-out colours and grittiness might be a problem on a large TV screen though it’s clearly not the fault of the manufacturer. Save for a couple of loud gunshots and a car crash, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is more than serviceable for the dialogue-based movie.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
