29th Street (1991) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  George Gallo

Starring:  Anthony LaPaglia, Danny Aiello, Lainie Kazan, Frank Pesce, Robert Forster, Donna Magnani, Rick Aiello

After believing for years that 29th Street was the true story of Frank Pesce, I learned that Frank Pesce did not win the first New York state lottery.   He was a finalist, but did not win.    Does that taint my opinion of the film?   Absolutely not.  Many films "based on true stories" take dramatic license with the stories.     Rudy (1993) was almost a work of fiction based on a real Notre Dame football player.    Argo's ending was more dramatic than the real thing.   I could go on.  This is such a common practice that American Hustle (2013) satirically displays in the prologue, "Some of this actually happened."

How much of 29th Street actually happened doesn't matter anyway.   This is a truly funny and warm film, populated with people we can't help but love.   They are real and true, adorned with personality touches that sure seem like they were based on real life.   Can you really make this stuff up?

29th Street opens with a visibly distraught Frank Pesce, Jr. (LaPaglia) screaming at God, "Why did you do this to me?  I don't bother nobody.   I'm a nice guy."   He then throws snowballs at a church statue and is arrested.  Why is he so upset?    It turns out he won the New York state lottery and has his reasons for being angry about that.   On its surface, this baffles the on-duty detective (Forster).   "You win the lottery and you go get arrested for throwing snowballs at a church.  What are you? Some kind of mamaluke?"  This may be the only time in the history of any lottery in which a participant is praying to God not to win.  

Frank tells his story to the cops and, without giving away too many important plot developments, his feelings make a certain amount of sense.     He was born in New York and all of his life was blessed, and cursed, with good fortune.    His luck is so good that when he is stabbed in the stomach as a young man, it reveals a tumor which would have otherwise gone undetected and killed him.     His father Frank Sr (Aiello) has the opposite luck.    His business goes belly up and he is now indebted to a local mobster.    He plays the lottery and never wins.    And cats are forever sitting on his perfectly manicured lawn of Kentucky bluegrass.   "Their body heat will kill the grass."    If one considers how small this section of grass is, does it really qualify as a lawn?

Frank Sr both admires and resents his son's good fortune.  Frank Jr. purchases a single ticket which places him in the finals to win the first New York state lottery.  He bought it because the cashier at the local pawn shop was unable to break a $10 dollar bill.   Imagine that.  Frank's colorful family consists of an older brother Vito (played by the real Frank Pesce) who is a cop, a doting mother (Kazan) who always calls her husband out when he attempts a get rich quick scheme, and sister Madeline (Magnani) who marries a guy the family doesn't like.    When Frank Sr. lies to her about going bowling, she replies, "You ain't been bowling since Christ left Chicago." 

29th Street contains big laughs based on the personalities of its people.   They are seen lovingly, with all of their foibles and creative ways of expressing themselves.   George Gallo, who writes and directs, handles the material with a light touch.   We see Frank Sr. decide to make pizza himself rather than order out because, "I'm a man of principle and I'm not going to pay for something 27 times what it's worth."    His attempts at making pizza create something the family pets wouldn't dream of eating.   It resembles no pizza I've ever seen.   Aiello is wonderful as usual as the loving, confused patriarch.     Frank Jr, for the most part is the straight man, except of course when he signs up for the Army and is rejected because he protests about not having time to study for a urine exam.   

Little scenes like that may be throwaway in other comedies, but 29th Street is more about its people than what actually happens to Frank Jr.    The film's ending is something that seems dreamed up by a Hollywood screenwriter, but it is so goofy that it may have actually occurred.  I've rarely seen a film in which the characters surprise me with what they do or say next.  Whether it's based on real life or not, 29th Street is full of life and energy you don't see that often.  I had a grin throughout the entire film.