Snitch
Tagline: How far would you go to save your son?
Inspired by a true story, Snitch finds Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing John Matthews, a father who must dive into the drug underworld in order to save his son, Jason (Rafi Gavron).
Jason is wrongly accused of being involved in a drug distribution crime and is set to receive a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. But Matthews cuts a deal with the U.S. attorney to go in as an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel in order to save his son and the day.
It certainly sounds diverting enough and critics are backing up that view. “Unusual for this sort of thing, Snitch is a film after which you remember the characters and actors more than the big action moments,” writes The Hollywood Reporter. “Never removing his shirt, Johnson behaves within a narrow range but is engagingly distressed and stalwart in equal measure, conveying sufficient feeling and subtext to suggest the actor could be entrusted with greater dramatic challenges in the future.” Variety calls the film “strangely compelling,” although it notes the film “plays less to auds’ hearts than to their craving for testosterone.” But Screen Daily isn’t in the tank, pointing out that “the film’s first half is weighed down by clichéd dialogue and clunky drama.” Perhaps so, but it’s still some leap from The Tooth Fairy.
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