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SONNY Send This Review to a Friend
Some mothers raise their sons to be doctors or lawyers. Jewel, the mother in "Sonny," raises her boy to be a prostitute. Jewel is a New Orleans madam and that is the world she knows, and the one Sonny knows until he goes off to the military, returns and would like to start a new life. Although there is nothing wrong dramatically with the premise, there is nowhere near the artistry needed for "Sonny" to be more than melodrama that is more appalling than gratifying.
Nicolas Cage, working from a screenplay by John Carlen, tries his hand at directing for the first time. As successful as his acting is in "Adaptation," here his stint behind the camera is a false start. Just about everything is overwrought in "Sonny," including Brenda Blethyn's excessively broad performance as Jewel, as well as situation after situation. The plot holds a secret revealed to Sonny only after it is too late. James Franco underplays the most in the title role, and he at least is interesting to watch.
Harry Dean Stanton overdoes the air of tragedy as Henry, the man in Jewel's life. He also displays a special fatherly attitude toward Sonny. Attractive Mena Suvari struggles to make something of her role as Carol, the new prostitute Jewel acquires. There is melodrama in her liking for Sonny, who feels so guilty about his old life and the way he picks it up again that he has trouble committing to anyone. Carol is about to go off with a crude but well-heeled guy who can make her existence comfortable.
Our existence is made uncomfortable by an ugly scene in which Sonny has to service a rich woman who wants him to pose as a cop and assault her. It is a cross between the comical and the pathetic as Sonny revolts. There's more somewhat explicit stuff, but whatever effect Cage was going for, the results are merely gross in ways that don't seem to have been intended. The New Orleans atmosphere is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams territory, but you won't find any Tennessee Williams poetry in "Sonny." A Gold Circle and Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
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