36
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe Son of No One is driven by mood and atmosphere to the extent that the stakes-free story and interest-free characters seem almost incidental, and such is surely the movie's saving grace -- a perverse style that overshadows a severe lack of substance.
- 60Village VoiceMelissa AndersonVillage VoiceMelissa AndersonTatum is touching as the stressed, decent provider trying to make something bad from his past not destroy his future. Yet the real surprise is Tracy Morgan, in a small but transformative role as the heavily medicated adult incarnation of Jonathan's childhood friend.
- Performances are strong across the board, and the movie offers a solid sense of place. But the mysteries, once explained, don't make a lot of sense.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertHere's a bad movie with hardly a bad scene. How can that be? The construction doesn't flow. The story doesn't engage. The insistent flashbacks are distracting. The plot has problems it sidesteps. Yet here is a gifted cast doing what it's asked to do. The failure is in the writing and editing.
- 50SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirIt's kind of fun to watch Pacino and Liotta and Tatum and James Ransone, as Jonathan's foulmouthed partner, as they roar at each other and suck the marrow from the hambone. You can see why actors want to work with Montiel, but actors are notoriously bad judges of whether good scenes will ever add up to a worthwhile movie, which is exactly the problem here.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe more that secret comes out, the more incoherent (and ludicrous) the film gets.
- 42The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasA few individual performances survive - Liotta finds a little of his old edge, and Pacino briefly revisits Serpico territory - but they're smothered in the slow-burning absurdity.
- 38Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOrlando SentinelRoger MooreIt's all very messy and entirely too obvious at the same time. Montiel makes the most of his settings, but the story keeps staggering into dead ends.
- 30VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonIn this case, Montiel's awkward appropriation of gritty crime-drama conventions results in a film that's contrived and implausible, at times absurdly so.
- 20Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichBy the time The Son of No One reaches its wanna-be-tragic finale, you'd like nothing more than to kick this bastard child to the curb.