For the first 30 minutes I just sat cringing - every imaginable cliché about the mafia and Italians and the wonderful idyllic childhood this mix creates poured forth. You've heard it a hundred times before and, guess what, better. The head mafia guy in the district "was loved by everyone" (ahem, even though the hero's father despises him and we learn that very few people truly like him - the cliché therefore being contradicted by the rest of the film) and of course, everyone has their own cute nickname. The only original addition was that of race and racism, specifically, against African-Americans (but hey, guess what, the hero is DIFFERENT - he doesn't really share the prejudices of his friends). This too though was handled rather ham-fistedly, at one point a character uses a racist term and the next minute the person on the receiving end of it has not only forgotten it but forgiven it completely. It was a plot-serving cop-out of the highest order.
Furthermore, for a film directed by such a consummate actor as De Niro, there are a few bad performances - specifically by the teenage version of the hero and his love interest (who was actually appalling).
That said, by half way through I got a bit more drawn into the story, but this is still a very inferior mafia/growing up film.
Furthermore, for a film directed by such a consummate actor as De Niro, there are a few bad performances - specifically by the teenage version of the hero and his love interest (who was actually appalling).
That said, by half way through I got a bit more drawn into the story, but this is still a very inferior mafia/growing up film.