Linbeymusol
Wonderful character development!
Cathardincu
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
arabic58
Just saw this film for the first time, 8-Jan-06. It conveys to me why I like Boys in the Hood and New Jack City. As a self described movie person, who only learned and saw the film maker's art through the lens of the boob tube beginning in the 1960s, I would like to recommend this movie. When the movie opened up, I just assumed a mid USA rust belt city that could be any one of thousand places. Chicago, Gary Indiana, Cleveland, etc. The ending surprised me , in that the cops from NYC showed up at their parents house. The last scenes action did not.The first half of the film I just could not stop watching. We all grow up with dreams. We all think things will be like they are in the movies. At least the famous ones. The Classics. The reality of Boys in the Hood, New Jack City and The Best Years of Our Lives, later on in the film slaps you in the face. The ending did not do it for me. Every thing leading up the ending was believable. Going back home to the old neighborhood after getting out. Getting hooked up with family. Seeing people moving on, moving to their same end. The girl who was left back and was about to by hooked up to a violent looser like Loraine's 1st husband. Diane marrying a nice quiet boy, like she thought Joey was. Joey looking around and seeing the life he thought he would have. I just could not watch the strip scene with Loraine. The last good scene was Joey and Loraine in the car talking.I would like to hope the ending was forced on the director because of perceived market forces.
Sjoerd (Filmfan-NL)
spoilers hereinTim Roth shows once more he can really act. In No Way Home he enters the stage as a prisoner-on-parole, who is determined never to go back again. As we learn he suffered mental damage resulting from having had an accident while playing as a kid, after which he went in a coma for a while. Though not a retard, he comes across a bit slow. He doesn't overdo this trait, very subtle acting I think! He is kind and softspoken without being sweet and innocent or mushy. He stays with his brother Tommy (Russo) and his wife Lorraine (Unger) who have a far from happy marriage. The film brings across the problems he faces as an ex-convict. His former fiance, turns out to have left him for another man, has kids even. From her we learn he spent his time in jail for a crime his brother committed for which he scapegoated voluntarily. Too bad the director switches halfway through from the dramatic angle -this motif really works, and especially Unger and Roth's emerging friendship deserves more celluloid- to the typical theatrical crime-action approach. That part isn't at all bad, and the flick has a reasonable plot but the power of this movie was in the character-developments and family-relationships if you ask me (you didn't). Gladly no simple happy ending.Worth mentioning also is the brief and utterly unimportant sex scene between Russo and Heather Gottlieb. Although not too depictive in nature I thought it was the best steamy erotic scene I've seen in ages in a 'regular' movie. Gottlieb is a stunning beaut too by the way. I think we'll see more of her.Definitely a film worth watching, unless you like Reservoir Dogs style (Would it be a coincidence Roth was in that as well ?) blood and gore be prepared to look away by the time you reach the end. (8/10)
litti
It's Tim Roth, who steals the show in No Way Home. The film in itself is very good, and it manages to balance emotion and action very nicely. But it wouldn't be anything special without Roth. I believe he is in a role which he can act the best, an "awkward" guy. This is a film which deserves a DVD-release, and hopefully so will happen.
koop-2
Joey gets out of prison after six years. What crime he has served we don't know yet. He goes to his parental home and rings on the door. A blonde opens. Joey asks for his brother Tommy, troubled the blonde goes to get him. A surprised Tommy invites his younger brother. Against his wife's (the blonde) wish Tommy and Joey agree that Joey should live at their home a while, until he get a job and can get a place of his own.Tommy sells grass and Lorrain works as stripper at private parties. Joey is determined to not get in to jail again and begins to work as a window cleaner. Something that Tommy think is stupid, because there's more money to earn on drugs.Joey - who according to himself, is a bit 'slow' since a incident in childhood - develops with time a special relationship with Lorrain, who's at first is skeptical to Joey's stay in the house. Tommy appears the longer the film goes as a real a**hole - he doesn't do anything home, is unfaithful and lies to his wife. When Joey asks Lorrain is happy with her situation he explain, in the key scene of the film, that marriage doesn't have any benefits; "You get marry when you're in love, then you get tired with each other". Lorrain is in any case grateful of that Tommy haven't during their more than four years together never have beaten her once. Something that her former husband did.No Way Back (the title unfortunately sounds like an inferior action flick.) is a traditional film, without too many clichés. The director manages to work up scenes and solutions we recognize to something natural. Powerful, with an every day tone (e.g. when Joey visits his former girlfriend).The actors in the three leading roles are exquisite: Tim Roth as Joey does a typical Tim Roth role without because of that it would be too much Tim Roth of the role. James Russo (Tommy) makes a role portrait who resembles that kind of things he done before, but I want to rank this performance as the best I've seen from him. Deborah (Kara) Unger as Lorrain, who placed the centre of gravity on the acting and not to look sexy, convinces with her restrained acting style in her study of a woman who's become tired.
