Please don't spend money on this.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Channing Tatum stars with Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche, and Tracy Morgan in "The Son of No One" from 2011.An extremely uninvolving story of a rookie cop, Jonathan (Tatum) working in the area where he grew up. His Precinct Captain, Mathers (Liotta), begins receiving letters about two unsolved murders that happened many years ago in the area when Jonathan was a kid. The letters are also sent to the newspaper, and Jonathan is afraid of a long-kept secret coming out and ruining his life. Finally, he is approached by his father's old partner, Charles Stanford, who has been protecting him. He has a solution. What could director Dito Monteil have possibly said to these actors to get them to make this movie? How desperate could they have been? I have no clue, but this film was poorly directed, with a plot that wasn't enough for 1-1/2 hours.With people like Pacino and Liotta in the film, you certainly can't call the acting poor, but just about everyone in this film was wasted.Not recommended. This film is gritty and a real downer - that would be okay if it were better.

After seeing this mess of a movie I can imagine how hard to take the book might be. Writer/director Dito Montiel writes dialogue as if he's still penning 'songs' for his punk rock bands; Major Conflict or Gutterboy. Dito and some New Yorkers might use gutter language as every other word in all their sentences but it makes them look as if they don't have the imagination to think of any pronouns or adjectives (maybe their vocabulary truly is devoid?).Dito even has his senior detectives use abusive words when trying to gain the 'trust' of very young children...give us a break!. Not only are we thrown endless low life words - the general situations in this screenplay are too often as grotty as a clogged sewer pipe. Add to this, shaky camera shots supplied by generally talented french D.O.P Benoit Delhomme and it could be enough to make some viewers quite nauseous. If ugly story and situations leave you feeling entertained you might just be able to make it to the convoluted and somewhat implausible finale.The presence of big cast names from yesteryear doesn't help and won't improve their reputations. When the best performances come from a young Jake Cherry (who works well at his thankless role) and his dog Tiger, there's something amiss (only trouble is a thug violently kicks Tiger to death early in the piece). Someone will always find something to 'like' about grunge of this type but, from the look of the reviews and the box office returns there hasn't been all that many. When the lights come up the only ones left in the audience might be Tarantino and Scorsese on their industry complementary's.

A rookie cop (Channing Tatum) 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.This started off well for about 45 minutes. It has a pretty good police drama feel, and it has a great cast. With Al Pacino and Ray Liotta, what could possibly go wrong. But then the story goes to a police cover-up 15 years ago and it grinds to a halt. There whole thing has no tension. I'm not even sure if it made complete sense. It's a big disappointment.

I thought this movie was OK. I'm surprised by all the negative reviews. My main complaint would be that it moved along a little to slow, but the story made sense and it was interesting. Also, I didn't think Jonathan would have done what he did at the end because he's jeopardizing his family.But the story about Jonathan's guilt and how he lived with it and eventually became a cop was pretty good. Plus you had the surprise of why he ended up at the prescient that was 2 hours from his home. Channing Tatum was decent in this, better acting than a lot of his movies.FINAL VERDICT: OK, if you want a drama.