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.
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.