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“Alpha Dog”

Director Nick Cassavetes

Universal Pictures

Did you ever watch “America’s Most Wanted” and think to yourself, “I wonder if these dramatizations would be better with Justin Timberlake”?

Nick Cassavetes, the man who brought us “The Notebook,” has the answer – for better or worse.

“Alpha Dog” is loosely based on the true story of Jesse James Hollywood, one of the youngest men ever to be placed on the FBI’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list.

A successful drug dealer in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood resorted to kidnapping the brother of an acquaintance who owed him money – a choice that set off a chain reaction of events resulting in tragedy for the young victim.

Beyond those basic details, “Alpha Dog” diverges dramatically from the events that inspired it.

The source of this disparity is hard to pinpoint. Both Hollywood’s father and the prosecutor in his case were consultants for the film (the courts also attempted to halt the release of the film with Hollywood’s trial still pending). Cassavetes attempted to tell a cautionary tale of neglectful parents.

Under the weight of all these conflicting voices, the film collapses.

“Alpha Dog” is framed by a handful of faux-documentary interviews occurring after the main events. The audience is constantly bombarded by captions reminding us of when and where we are and the mounting number of witnesses to the crime who stayed silent.

But behind this veneer of veracity, the names have been changed. Characterizations are wildly speculative or non-existent, especially the attempts at placing some blame on absent and over-lenient parents who indulge in drugs just as much as their offspring.

Some of the film’s events are even wholly fictional, taking excessive artistic license while adding nothing.

What the audience is left with is a glorified re-enactment that sheds little light on what really happened.

Johnny Truelove, standing in for Hollywood, is conspicuously absent from the plot progression. In fact, the most prominent character is one of his lackeys, played by Justin Timberlake.

His is the only character who appears conflicted over Truelove’s intentions and gets the most screen time. Timberlake proves himself to be more than competent in a film where no one else in the cast tries to flex their talents.

For its first three-quarters, the film is an unintentional comedy, rife with intoxicated, overprivileged youths making fools of themselves. Then it abruptly morphs into a tragedy that closes with Sharon Stone – hardly seen previously – in fat makeup, lamenting the loss of an underdeveloped character.

For a movie titled “Alpha Dog,” it’s unfortunate that no one took charge of this production to explore how such a thing could happen and why.