Movie Review: American Son

Neil Abramson's American Son is capable of inspiring very mixed feelings for a viewer; the movie is both thoughtful and rudimentary, both heartfelt and insincere. There is nothing remarkable about this film; nothing remarkably good, and nothing remarkably bad. And, ultimately, that is this film's biggest fault and strongest disappointment.

American Son tells the story of Mike (Nick Cannon) a marine shipping out for Iraq in four days time who returns home to Bakersfield, California for leave during Thanksgiving. On the bus ride from Camp Pendleton to Bakersfield Mike meets Cristina (Melonie Diaz) a college student presumably herself returning for the holiday. Mike has four days to see his friends and family and make his goodbyes before he leaves, knowing full well that he may never return.

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One of the best things that this movie has going for it is the freshness of the talent behind the camera. From the opening moments of the film the music from, relative newcomers, Tim Boland and Sam Retzer is subtle and haunting and beautifully nuanced. The music, though at times overly-used, is truly remarkable and really sets the tone of the movie nicely. The ambient style of the score is a nice contrast to the rest of the soundtrack which is comprised mostly of rap songs. The cinematography by Kris Kachikis is beautifully understated. It is the perfect complement to the music. Kachikis seems able to pull gorgeous shots out of nowhere. All in all the music and cinematography ensure that even if you do not like the movie, you will not have an entirely wasted experience.

Nick Cannon is not a great actor; however he has proven more than once that he may be capable of becoming a good actor. After a surprisingly strong performance in Bobby, Cannon is something of a disappointment as Mike. He is charming and charismatic enough for the role, but the relationships and interactions with the other (better) actors still seem forced, as if they were strangers, and he still sounds too much like he is reciting lines. Melonie Diaz, too, has turned in better performances than the one that she turns in here; her performance is not bad, it is just a little bit too safe. While she is totally capable, she does not add very much depth to the character, and it is hard to see what it is that causes Mike to be so drawn to her.


Most of the supporting cast is strong. Matt O'Leary, who gave a brilliant performance in Brick, here plays Mike's best friend Jake. O'Leary does a good job, making the character wholly believable, however he has the difficult task of playing an annoying, loud, obnoxious, hothead so his performance, while dead on, is not enjoyable. Jay Hernandez, in the role of a marine who has returned from Iraq, is unrecognizable and turns in another in a series of reliable performances. April Grace, Chi McBride and Tom Sizemore turn in characteristically good performances in their impactful, albeit small, roles.

One thing that felt jarring throughout the film is the insistence that (again, newcomer) writer Eric Schmid has on focusing on the racial and socio-economic situations of the characters. As opposed to this film being a thoughtful character study about the difficulty of returning home only to have to leave again (in that respect this film could have been similar to the absolutely brilliant 25th Hour), Schmid seems to want to make a larger comment about where America's military people come from. The multi-racial cast is a testament to this attempt; however the attempt divides the larger possibilities of the premise and actually acts to weaken the movie.

As previously mentioned the entire film has a ticking clock premise. We know that all the conflicts must be resolved within the four days that Mike is home. So, periodically throughout the movie, when a title card with how many hours until he has to return for deployment, it feels as if the movie thinks that the viewer is not smart enough to keep up with the time frame. It almost talks down to the audience, spells everything out for us. There is something extremely condescending about how this device is used.

One of the best and most interesting things about American Son is an interesting choice made by one of the characters. Throughout much of the movie Mike lies to his friend, to his family, and to Cristina about his deployment. When he is asked if he is going to Iraq he says that he is just going back to the base, or makes up some similar lie. From the first time that he makes this lie there is no illusion that it is going to become a conflict of its own, however when this issue climaxes it is one of the most sincere and heartbreaking moment of the movie.

You know how there are some movies that you can tell, maybe because of their political agenda, that you will like or dislike long before you ever see the movie? American Son, in many ways, is one of those movies. This movie has extremely high highs and extremely low lows, and in the end everybody should be able to find something they like with this movie.

American Son is available on DVD.