Could have been so much better

FILM ONLY REVIEW

Parmie Tarzo is a gangster and lives on Staten Island, he has a good team working for him and between them they control a good portion of the island, unfortunately he gets greedy and decided that it is time he takes full control of the island. His team are not fully agreed on the plan and there are disastrous consequences for Parmie.

Sully is a normal hard working man who lives on the island, he is happily married and he and his wife have decided to try for a baby. Sully learns of a new procedure which can create a smart and intelligent baby but t costs a lot of money. He comes up with a plan to get the money but it involves crossing gangster Parmie. Will he be able to get the money and what will the outcome be?

Also on Staten Island we have a deaf butcher who has a long history with Parmie and he is always being asked to do dirty jobs for him. He is an elderly man and just wants a quiet life, he has by now had enough of all the requests and seeks revenge, just how can he achieve his revenge?

We see the outcome of these three peoples stories and just how they are linked together on Staten Island. The story for me was a little strange to start with but once I managed to get into it and understand what was happening with always returning to the same point I managed to follow it with a little more ease. The idea for the story was very good and I liked how it was based on the small island instead of the big city as it made it seem slightly more real and believable. The only problem for me was the years setting. It was supposed to have been set recently but the clothes and feel made it seem quite old. I think this would have worked so much better if they would have taken us back to perhaps the late 1960’s or early 70’s and this was the time when the gangs were big in America and it would have meant they could have done more with the story and characters and made them slightly bigger.

The acting was good and although the lead role was Parmie, for me the best actor and role was Ethan Hawk playing Sully, he was the most natural role in the film and had the most believable storyline. He was a hard working man who had a dirty job emptying sewage tanks and he just wanted to get the best for his wife and show her he loved her. He was easy to understand and get to know and I did warm to him and felt very sorry for how things went for him. He gave a lot of emotion to the role and really had me feeling these emotions by watching him. The role of Parmie was played by Vincent D’Onofrio and I was surprised to see that it was young Private Pile from the film Full Metal Jacket, this is the first film I have seen him in since that one. He played a very strange character who was supposed to be a hard gangster but for me this just did not come across well. He showed a soft side when on screen with his mother but when he was supposed to be hard and talking business I just did not believe what he was saying and the way he was acting was not coming across naturally. I did not like the way they took his character and made it something different and it did spoil the film for both me and hubby. The other man role was that of the deaf butcher, I really don’t know why they made him deaf as I think he could have bought a lot to the story by speaking as he would have had a lot to say and we could have understood the way he was feeling slightly better. He was able to get some feelings and emotions across quite well but not enough to warrant this as the third lead in the film.

A few of the support characters included appearances from Julianne Nicholson and Rosemary De Angelis, they all played pretty good roles and did help to bring a bit of depth to the story.

The scenery which we had a only very limited in the film, there was a lot of shots over the water at Manhattan and I did enjoy seeing the city and skyline but that was all we really got to see. There was parts of the film which were set in a wooden area but again these were very limited and we only got to see the same area over and over again. The film did have an early 90’s feel to it with the clothes some of the characters wore and the fact that the island was very slow paced compared to a big city, I don’t think they managed to get this right throughout the film as it did not make for memorable viewing and as I said before this would have been good set in the late 60’s or early 70’s as they could have used better costumes and props and have made it all much louder. The music was in keeping with the feel of the film and I have to say it was nothing special or very memorable, it did fit into the film well though and add to the drama and tension.

I am only reviewing the film so there are no DVD extras to speak about. The running time of the film is 96 minutes and the rate is a 15. Really do agree with the rate as there are some scenes of violence which even made me wince and turn away. The DVD is widely available and is priced around the £7-£10 mark. This film is currently being shown on Sky ~Movies so I would say to try and catch it there for free.

I am disappointed to only be able to give this film 3 stars. The overall concept and story was very good but it was just poorly executed and the time frame was all wrong. The acting was good from some and I did like some of the characters. I would say that this is worth a watch if you can do so for free but certainly do not waste money paying full price for the DVD.