Review of Snitch (2013) by Hoops2448 — 08 Jul 2013

Let me start by saying that this is probably the best Dwayne Johnson performance in his career which is why its a shame that its in this monotonous crime thriller. Snitch is the story of what happens when John Matthews (Johnson) finds out his son has been arrested for distributing drugs.

Matthews decides he must infiltrate a drug ring to bring someone to justice to truncate his sons prison sentence but this may ultimately ruin everything he has ever built. At the beginning of Snitch you are reminded that this is a film based on actual events and then these supposed real life people go on to do some of the most ridiculous things in the name of family and justice that you find it ever so hard to believe that this has any standing in reality.

The film splits its time between two families, one being John's family, the other belongs to one of John's employees, Daniel (Jon Bernthal), an ex con looking for a second chance for him and his family.

The film feels no desire to discuss or even talk about these characters lives or how they got to this place, instead it lets the viewer fill in the gaps thanks to vague hints dolled out in increments over the course of the film.

This allows you to make your own story for them but it also changes very little to do with the film making it lazy storytelling at best. As stated above this is a film grounded by a strong central performance by Johnson but the films slow pace and nonsensical storytelling makes it impossible to enjoy as the characters don't do normal logical things and they have not really been given any character traits to suggest they might even consider doing this.