Directed by: Alan Taylor
Starring: Allesandro Nivola, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Michael Gandolfini, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll, Leslie Odom, Jr., Michela De Rossi
The Many Saints of Newark was made for Sopranos fans to nod in recognition when a younger Paulie Walnuts or Silvio is introduced. For the poor schlub like me who didn't watch The Sopranos religiously, I am a stranger in a strange land when viewing The Many Saints of Newark. I'm superficially familiar with this world, mind you. I at least am aware that characters like Tony Soprano, Paulie Walnuts, and Uncle Junior exist, but The Many Saints of Newark is the prequel (excuse me, origin story) which we never realized we didn't need. The characters are presented and just languish on the screen. Events happen, but is all rather dull and uninspired, as if the characters learned how to act by watching mob movies.
The teenage Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini's son Michael) doesn't appear in the lumbering The Many Saints of Newark until halfway through the film. He looks like his father and has a way with a mischievous grin, but there isn't much else here to suggest Tony's future ruthlessness. No matter, while we're waiting for the inevitable debut of teenage Tony, The Many Saints...gives us a lackluster story of Tony's uncle Dickie Moltisanti (Nivola) who helps run the numbers rackets in late 1960's Newark, a story told from beyond the grave by Tony's cousin Christopher (Michael Imperioli) whom Tony killed at some point in The Sopranos when I wasn't actively watching it.
Dickie's loathsome father "Hollywood" (Liotta) returns from Italy with a much younger wife (De Rossi) in tow. Dickie is attracted to her, and she to him, but hey that's his dad's wife and he has to at least wait until he kills his dad during a fight to make his move. There are rules to these things, don't you know? Dickie feels bad about killing his pop by bashing his head repeatedly into a steering wheel, so he visits Dickie's twin brother Sal (also played by Liotta) in prison asking how he could "do a good thing" without actually admitting to killing his old man. What do these scenes accomplish? Not much.
Then, we have the Soprano side of the family, led by Johnny (Bernthal) who serves a four-year prison stretch while his exasperated wife Livia (Farmiga) takes care of their three kids while taking solace in pills (Tony helpfully sings a line from "Mother's Little Helper" to nail the point home). While Johnny is away, Tony's Uncle Junior (Stoll) takes care of things, but Tony clearly idolizes Dickie, who as played by Nivola carries a certain swagger.
The Many Saints also covers the bubbling-over racial tensions of late 60's Newark led by Dickie's former underling Harold (Odom) who eventually forms his own rackets and makes an enemy of his former boss. For those who love nasty, blood soaked violence, The Many Saints is punctuated with enough such scenes to keep you engaged, including one where Dickie uses a power tool on one of Harold's associate's mouth.
If The Many Saints of Newark could stand on its own as an engrossing movie, then maybe I would've been nudged into catching on Sopranos episodes I've missed or forgotten about. However, it seems like it was made for the fans, a Sopranos Episode I-The Phantom Menace, if you will. This doesn't do much for Sopranos novices like me, who knows just enough about the HBO series to know The Many Saints won't entice me into caring about the next chapter, or the one I just saw.
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