40 out of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Good, but flawed
Meako from ,
19th April, 2007
Based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood, one of the youngest men to ever make the FBI Most Wanted list, this film has changed the names, I can only assume, to protect the innocent (or perhaps because the real life Hollywood objected to his portrayal). Either way, in the film Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) is a young drug dealer who is living the gangster life. His crew consist of Tiko (Fernando Vargas), Elvis (Shawn Hotosy), and Friankie (Justin Timberlake). When an associate of Truelove's, Jake (Ben Foster) is unable to pay off his debt, a rivalry build between the two. Truelove, in a spur of the moment decision, kidnaps Jake's brother, Zack (Anton Yelchin), who becomes a willing participant in his kidnapping, lapping up the gangster life with Frankie as his 'minder'. However with events slowly spiraling out of control, Truelove starts trying to work a way out of the desperate situation he has placed himself in. Director Nick Cassavettes has followed The Notebook (his last film) with a totally different tone of film, and delivers an impressive, albeit slightly flawed, result. The mainly young cast slide into their parts with expertise, with Timberlake particularly standing out. As minder to the kidnapped kid, his role is the largest one on screen, and he defies the nay-sayers who doubted his switch to movies by delivering a performance that promises that this could be an actor to watch out for in the future. Support to the young cast is at hand in the forms of Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis. The occasional documentary-like moments with Willis and Stone being interviewed about events remind the audience that, although marginally fictionalised, this is still a true story, and during the main moments of the story, the on-screen prompts counting the witnesses make you realise how careless the gang were, whilst also highlighting how many people would simply turn and look away rather than report something they see. A shocking snapshot of the fear-filled society of the film. The film does have a few flaws. It starts off a bit slow, with the film offering no reason why we should really care about events which transpire. Sharon Stone's later moments in the film, where (as the mother of Zack) she delivers a powerful, and moving speech to camera would be more impressive were she not wearing a fat-suit which makes that in Shallow Hal look real! The smaller errors (such as the gang playing Halo on an X-Box when the film is set 2 years before the machine was made) can be overlooked. Overall this is a worthwhile film to watch, just not really something that demands viewing on the big screen. It is also a good showcase of what Timberlake can do, and for that alone Alpha Dog gets a thumbs up
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