There are some movies that make you need a long hot shower after watching them. A real 'Silkwood' scrubdown, if you know what I mean. THE SON OF NO ONE is absolutely one of those films. Set in New York City in the days after 9/11, the plot centers around a young Cop played by Channing Tatum. Something happened to him when he was a young boy living in the Queensboro Projects in 1986. There were two deaths and suddenly 16 years later, there are anonymous notes and mysterious phone calls made with threats to unleash the secrets of the past. The flashback scenes are intercut with the present day story until the pieces come together in the last half hour of the film. These flashbacks are gritty, dirty, and incredibly hard to watch. Even harder to shake after the movie is over. Channing Tatum leads an impressive Cast that makes the material worth watching, in spite of the problematic screenplay. The back and forth aspect of the storytelling makes it difficult to grasp exactly who you are supposed to root for. So by the time the mystery truly starts to make sense, I wasn't invested enough in the characters to care. But the performances from Al Pacino, Tracy Morgan, and in particular Katie Holmes were worth the 90 minutes on the couch. Ms Holmes shows some true dramatic chops and I wish she could find that perfect role to take her out from under the shadow of her Hollywood marriage. So it's a mixed recommendation for THE SON OF NO ONE. If you come across it on Cinemax some late night, you could do worse. Just have a clean bar of soap ready when the end credits start rolling.
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