The Son of No One

The best part of the movie is the cast: both adults and children are great , although it seems to me Channing Tatum has had better roles than this. I liked most Al Pacino as Detective Stanford and Jake Cherry as young Jonathan "Milk" White, but the others were also equal to their task.

Directing and especially plot leave a lot to be desired. Background obsessing/pestering is always there, but some turns are strange and illogical. The solution scene is good (although nothing special), but the very ending is rather disappointing. When the credits appeared I just realized that I had seen another oppressive movie with the aim to let the viewers ponder upon guilt, forgiveness, remorse and other differently perceived feelings.

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.

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.

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.

Grady Harp

All I can say is, what a waste of good talent. The pacing is brutally slow.

The actors are good, but the script is... uh lackluster, to be charitable. Juliette Binoche is horribly miscast, however, and the lighting make her and Katie Holmes look ghoulish.

Ray Liotta looks swollen, pockmarked and perpetually astonished.

The best acting is delivered by two eleven year olds, which doesn't say much for the rest of the cast. More entertaining than watching paint dry, albeit marginally.

You want a great cop action thriller?

Try Training Day.

I'm surprised it received so many bad reviews. I think it is a great movie, very well acted, strong and realistic, no sugar coating here. Tension builds up so well and the ending is very powerful. It's not an action movie ,is more a drama , dark thriller, I don't now how to describe it . Very New York The plot is original. I really liked it

A young cop (Channing Tatum) 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.

The basic story here is pretty good, and with Al Pacino and Ray Liotta on board, it should be hard to fail. But this film just comes up short. It has a few too many flashbacks, too many clichés about corrupt cops. And it makes a much bigger deal out of a situation than need be. It conflates the word "murder".

Maybe a fine-tuning of the script would have made this film a winner. And probably casting anyone else in the world besides Katie Holmes would have helped.