Snitch

Synopsis: “A father goes undercover for the DEA in order to free his son who was imprisoned after being set up in drug deal.” (Rated PG-13; 1 hour 52 minutes)

A movie starring “The Rock” where he goes undercover and works with drug cartels…it’s clearly going to be a mindless action movie, right? It turns out that this was a suspenseful drama, and somewhat of a message movie; who could have seen that coming? And I certainly don’t mean that as a bad thing, it was actually quite a bit better than you’d think.

I would disagree with the description given to the movie – that Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) is helping his son, played by Rafi Gavron, who was SET UP in a drug deal. That implies that the son was framed, and that’s simply not the premise. It is more of a situation of entrapment in the movie, which is important because it creates a more flawed universe of characters. Rafi Gavron reminds me in his looks and anguish of Edward Furlong, and is played with a sense of pathetically admirable sympathetic guilt. And Dwayne Johnson was allowed to actually act for the first time I can recall. His movies until now have either been entertainingly silly action (The Rundown), or goofy family comedies (Tooth Fairy). Here he does a nicely competent job as a father acting desperately and drastically to help his son, and I was involved in the story through to the end.

I was excited when Matti suggested that going with me to the movie was how he wanted to spend his own birthday (I’m still honored!), and am a bit confused why the movie isn’t getting better reviews. Not only was the acting fine, but the story is a very interesting one, and “inspired by true events”. The direction was very good, using handheld camerawork to give a sense of “in the moment realism”, while not annoying me by being too shaky. It turns out that the director Ric Roman Waugh has primarily been a stuntman throughout his career, and it explains why the action itself (the rare times it occurs) was awesome. In fact, the climactic action involving cars and a huge truck was done so well, that it helped to finish the satisfying drama with a bang.

One tidbit I’ll mention, Barry Pepper was fine as a DEA agent, but I was amusingly distracted by his unusual movie-beard, which you can see in a photo from the movie here. And Jon Bernthal was good as a torn ex-con, but I can’t look at him without thinking of his character Shane (from The Walking Dead), which was an iconically great role. I may have gone into the movie thinking it would be a different genre, but I’m happy to walk out recommending this exciting drama.

The movie was better than Dwayne Johnson’s Doom, a lousy video game movie from 2005. It wasn’t as good as Breakdown, a fantastically taut thriller that also involves large trucks as essential parts of the story.

Quality Rating: B+

Boaz Rating: A- (The climactic ending gets an A though)