No Way Home (1997)

They said Tim Roth was yet to turn in a bad performance back in the late nineties. I truly know he never will. He is one of my favorite actors, and No Way Home is a film that deserves much more recognition, it's cinema release hardly noticed. It is a low key film as in cinema appeal. It's a more dramatized sort of movie, with a straight forward plot. Ex con Roth, playing another vulnerable type, and he does it, bloody well here, has just got out of prison. His bad arse older brother (Russo) begrudgingly takes him in, where too the misses (Unger) isn't hot on him staying with them. She too is a stripper, Unger appearing in more and more movies around this time. Now Russo, who's into selling drugs, and owing money, is not really providing the best environment for Roth who has to report to a PO, who tells him, "I can pop up at your place anytime. I don't need a warrant. I don't need a reason". So you can imagine what ensues. Unger is hot why doing a gig for an old guy's birthday, where Roth tags along. Startling truths about that night, prior to Roth ending up in the can, surface, even an old girlfriend hating him, for taking the rap. Heavy bits of impactful gore here and there, it's start, reminding you, prison's no picnic. Yes I do say No Way Home is a simplified drama, all it's bits of plot and story, nothing new, but if you love Tim Roth, it's worth it for seeing another splendid performance, this one at his most vulnerable, it's kind of demeaning, the character, this fine brave actor plays.

After a torrid 6 years in prison, Joey (Tim Roth) returns to his family home to stay with his brother and wife whilst he tries to get his feet back on the ground. Only to find his brother is mixed up in criminal activity that could violate his parole. This is an attempt at a story of family loyalty in the face of adversity, and the lengths people will go to protect the unconditionally loved.This is essentially a character piece, or least meant to be. It is worth mentioning that the story and script aren't all that bad and technically it effectively achieves the definite grittiness of its setting's social standing. There is, however, something missing in the acting department of almost every character that dares to introduce itself. It's as if they've all agreed to turn up as a favour to a friend but don't really want to be there. There are numerous points where they can't seem to be bothered to act pain. For example, at one point Tommy, James Russo's brother character, doesn't make a single sound when taking a knife in the chest. Tim Roth looks as though he thinks he's too cool to play a character that is mentally "slow". Tom Hanks could be ranked fairly highly on the cool front. Now if he has to cross the entire spectrum to play a character of the other extreme in Forest Gump then Roth only has to cover a fraction of the distance on the same scale for this role. But for an actor proved to be of ample talent, he just doesn't manage, or try, to pull it off. The budget must have been reached and breached some time before any of the heavy characters were cast. I've literally seen fights in school yards play acted better than in this film. Deborah Kara Unga doesn't do too badly but by no means well enough to pick the whole thing out of the huge empty hole it finds itself in.One other worrying thing about this is that Giovinazzo was recorded in a radio interview likening his film to On The Waterfront. I mean come on.

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.

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.