So I saw this film on Netflix and decided to go in completely blind. I didn't read the little description for it. I didn't look anything up on the internet and I've never heard a person talk about this movie before.
So it was kind of surprising to me when at the very end of the movie, half of all the major positions were taken up by Ben Affleck. Which kind of makes sense. The guy is plastered all over this movie and the whole thing feels like a giant vanity project. Or at least an attempt at a vanity project as a flax characters just kind of neutral here.
It's not that Ben Affleck was a bad actor. He was fine for out most of the film but some of the scenes just felt so weird. Like I couldn't see the character he was playing anymore I can only see the guy acting as him I know my brain to think is; ''Why is Ben Affleck in the 1930s talking to some stereotypically Irish girl.''
Oh sweet Lord of the Irish accents. So the first 30 minutes of this film has two major characters both with the same over-the-top stereotypical 1930s American Irish accent.
And it's not that big of a problem given that both of the characters or phased out of the film really quickly but it does take you out of the film every time one of them tries to talk for more than a single sentence. You just start hearing that accent and you're mine sticks on it like a sore thumb. And you just know that if they push that accent a little farther they're going to turn into Scotty from Star Trek.
Now you have Sienna Miller with the fake Irish accent and I was a little forgiving.
She's told to do an old-style accent and that's just what she gives.
Nothing technically wrong with it it works for the character and it makes her oddly endearing as you realise that she's the only person the film that doesn't really give a damn about anything.
But then you've got Brendan Gleeson an actual Irishman who you think would be able to say; ''Hey maybe we should alter the accent a little bit. I bet I could give him a far more authentic accent from one of the regions in Ireland.''
As opposed to the stereotypical American accent that doesn't want to make up its mind which regions it's from, so it tries to sound like every reach and at the exact same time.
Okay so I get that I'm just nitpicking right now. The Irish accent doesn't matter in the film it doesn't really take away from it because it's not that prominent. But there's just nothing else to really talk about.
This is a perfectly neutral 'buy the books' movie. There's nothing wrong with it, it doesn't go out of its way to excite you with any strain story twists or gimmicks.
It's a mobster story.
I would have liked to have seen a bit more relationship building between Ben Affleck's character and the Irish girl who hooked up originally. I think you could have made an entire film just off of that premise. But then they kill her off in a quack hooks up with this other random girl in some crappy part of Tampa. Then they play up the race card because. well. Why not playing the race card.
I also would have altered the ending. You had this incredibly over the top Italian mobster who goes off the rails at the end of the film as he decides to kick off this guy who's been earning him thousands of dollars in a town that he formerly had little to no connection in just so we can give it to his son. I get that there's an arrogance of only the Italians to run the mob kind of mentality but you're still screwing over a guy who you know has a billion connections and is more suited to keeping your money flow in then your dumbass son.
It just felt so out of character. At the beginning of the film The guy seems pretty reasonable with what he wanted this Irish guy (Afflick) to accomplish down in the South.
He knew that he could depend on him to get him a solid income and that he was motivated to screw over this other Irish guy who tried to kill him earlier.
But then out of nowhere the old Italian man decides he's going to partner up with the Irish guy who is screwing him over to begin with? You guys had a mob war against each other you wanted to kill each other.
It just doesn't make sense. So they didn't get their Casino down there. You still would want to hook up with a guy who was formally trying to kill you.
Especially when you consider that he's a complete screw up who constantly destroyed your own business.
It's well-documented that most mobsters where really stupid men but they weren't usually that stupid.
I don't know, the whole ending just feels a bit contrived and rushed. Which is annoying given the run time of 2-hours.
You could have cut out some of the other crap and given us a more fleshed-out ending. Especially considering after we have 10 minutes of Ben Affleck and family Shenanigans.
Comments
Post a Comment