So much average

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

i saw this in my home at my computer.i was attracted to this movie due to the name of Tatum.the movie starts with a lot of promise but does not deliver.acting is good by all.the story has nothing to show it just pulls the weight with some smaller subplots of homosexuality,child abuse,neighborhood,child trauma,guilt and so on.... it is very slowly paced,gives a similarity to crime thriller like mystic river etc but the last 20 minutes just cant be justified. it is able to build the pressure but does not have a viable closure. they should have ended this 30 minutes short with some incompleteness. you can watch to kill time and to see Tatum in different role.

What a waste of a top notch cast. Al Pacino, Ray Liotta, Katie Holmes, Channing Tatum and Juliette Binoche. I can understand why they chose to be in a movie together. What could go wrong? Plenty. The screenplay is terrible. The movie could have been watchable and quite involving if the story had been told in a more traditional chronological fashion with less jumping back and forth in time. Unfortunately it's a messy jigsaw puzzle that breaks up the impact. Key plot is revealed through quick mumblings and incomprehensible dialog that is lost in the expletives. The direction isn't clear. All impact is lost.Channing has been uglied up and looks suitably serious and a bit puffy - quite realistic. Katie looks tired and worried. Al looks like he waltzed in from another movie. Ray Liotta is a bit puffy too. Juliette is a bit hard to understand.Give this one a miss. It's just terrible.The movie is unpleasant set among the tenements and full of ugly images and words.

"The Son of No One", the new film by director Dito Montiel, who began a very promising career with "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" in 2006, boasts, on paper at least, a talented cast. Veterans such as Al Pacino, Ray Liotta and Juliette Binoche share screen time with younger actors like Channing Tatum and Katie Holmes. What emerges, however, is a series of occasionally memorable scenes ruined by a flat and sometimes incomprehensible storyline The film opens in 1986 when a young Jonathan White, played as an adult by Channing Tatum, shoots and kills two drug dealers in an apartment building in New York. As we see it, he fears for his life. His best friend Vinny, played by Tracy Morgan, witnesses the whole scene.White, however, has a guardian angel – Detective Charles Stanford. He is White's godfather and was once partner to the young man's father. Stanford covers up the killings, justice is never meted out. The film reopens in 2002 with White now a police officer in the same area. As he starts work, an anonymous source starts sending letters to a local newspaper, edited by Juliette Binoche. The front page letters claim to know the identity of the police officer who covered up the 1986 killings.If all this feels a little rushed, please bear in mind that I have only described the first twenty minutes of "The Son of No One". What follows is that White is tormented by his crimes – he suspects his old friend Vinny is writing the letters. His superior officer, Captain Marion Mathers (Ray Liotta), is reluctant to revisit an old case. White's wife, played by Katie Holmes, senses her husband is dealing with personal demons.Throughout "The Son of No One", I couldn't help but think that several promising angles were allowed to vanish without pursuit. Why, for instance, would a senior police officer risk his own reputation in covering up the murders – when there was a perfectly justifiable juvenile defense by White? Equally, the film hints at a police force under pressure after the events of September 11, 2001. But again, that is never explored. More baffling is the local community newspaper edited by Binoche. No explanation is offered for the anonymous notes – and why she would publish them without checking their veracity.If all this sounds risible – it isn't. The cast and crew acquit themselves well. Ageing lions Liotta and Pacino are on fine form. Katie Holmes is given some moving dialogue. Even Tracy Morgan is able to dampen his manic energy and delivers a muted performance. In the end, though, there simply isn't enough to hold our attention. Good acting is one thing – flawless storytelling is a greater challenge.