No Way Home (1997)

Blistering performances.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

With the exception of "The Unscarred", this is Buddy Giovinazzo's most technically accomplished piece. It does share thematic similarities with "Combat Shock", but it is a solid character drama that would not be out of place on a double bill with the Australian "The Boys". Being a Giovinazzo flick, it's about deeply flawed characters living in a personal hell. They see no way out of their situation and are too emotionally paralyzed to act, anyway.Deborah Kara Unger, who is a dynamite actress (and seriously sensual), is terrific as Lorraine, the girlfriend of James Russo's Tommy. Tim Roth plays Joey, who has just been released from jail and relies on his brother gratitude to give him a roof and bed until he gets his act together. Complications arise when local criminal elements encroach on Joey's rehabilitation.The plot is nothing new and hardly worth a mention. The drama's the thing here and it burns like a bolt of lightning once the the film's niceties are out of the way. Russo, who was also in "The Unscarred", is hard as nails and scarily convincing as Tommy. Roth never disappoints, unless the script's not there, and in this venture he makes us feel his pain.Another vacation in hell, with a great score, from one of cinema's darkest contemporary directors who is as seriously underrated as Ferrarra is seriously overrated.

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.

It was late at night, I was bored, and am a Tim Roth fan, so I decided to watch it. I didn't expect much. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so. It was very interesting. It presented you with questions about these characters and gave pieces of the puzzle slowly. It kept you engrossed, wanting more. It had various different sub-plots, all entertaining. It had this build up of a true great film and a truly great drama and character study with a uniqueness to it. However towards the end it falls into the standard, predictable plot points, transforming from a character piece and drama, to the cliche crime drama Tim Roth is most known for. That is truly a shame since, when given the chance, Roth can give great comedic and dramatic performances only if given the chance. While Roth made this film what it is, it featured good performances by Russo and Unger, those two should be watched in the future, they could easily go places.

This is a good story of a man trying to get back in to the real world after a few years in prison. Tim Roth and Deborah Unger are both good and it might have been a better movie if this revolved around their characters than Roth and James Russo, who play brothers. Russo takes this movie from a 7 out of 10 to a 6. He wasn't a very good bad guy.