As the film opens, its 1986, and young Jonathan “Milk” White (Jake Cherry) lives in the Queensboro projects with his grandmother. At the moment, he’s cowering in fear n the bathroom of his best friend Vinnie (Brian Gilbert) as a crazed junkie attempts to break down the door. Holding a gun in his hand, Jonathan fires and kills the man. Jonathan’s deceased father was a cop and his former partner, Det. Charles Stanford (Pacino), quickly sweeps everything under the rug.
Flash forward to 2002. Jonathan (Tatum) is now a rookie police officer assigned to the same Queens precinct where his father once worked; despite the fact that it’s located two hours from where he, his wife (Katie Holmes) and their young daughter live. From the moment he arrives, memories of Jonathan’s painful past begin flooding back to him. This is made all the more difficult because someone has begun leaking the story about 1986 to the public.
A local reporter Loren Bridges (Juliette Binoche) has started to receive anonymous letters claiming that NYPD covered up two murders in the projects, and that Det. Stanford and Jonathan’s new commanding officer Captain Mathers (Ray Liotta) were involved in the cover-ups. So, Jonathan is about to be exposed, but the audience is left asking, “Who was the second murdered person and how is Jonathan connected to that?” The question of who sent the letters isn’t much of a mystery, because we already know that two other kids were present when Jonathan shot the junkie. The letters had to come from one of them, but the film is so poorly written that Jonathan only assumes one of them is responsible and leaves it at that. I don’t know what it’s like to be a New York City cop, but I’m tired of these bad films where their all crooked.
The performances here are stereotypical. Tatum has the appropriate mustache, but his dramatic acting needs work. He’s really to bland to make us care about him. As for the rest of the cast, they’re solid, particularly James Ransone as Jonathan’s volatile partner and Juliette Binoche, whose French accent stands out against a sea of New York accents. Ray Liotta pretty much plays a version of himself, and Katie Holmes does little but screech at her husband. And Al Pacino? He does nothing of note here. I want him to star in a really good movie again.
The video is presented in 1080p with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Details are strong, and colors are bright and appropriate. The picture has no noticeable issues.
The audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Despite being a cop movie, action scenes are limited, in favor of dialogue. Score and ambient noise come in nicely.
English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are available.
The following special features are included:
- Audio Commentary: Writer/Producer/Director Dito Montiel and Executive Producer/Editor Jake Pushinsky deliver a fairly standard commentary. They share stories from the set and discuss the characters and the actors who play them, the crew, shooting locales, the plot, etc.
- Extended Scenes (1080p, 6:27).
- The Son of No One Trailer (1080p, 2:29).
