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Review #481 of 365
Movie Review of Brooklyn Rules (2007) [R] 99 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $8.50
Where Viewed: Regency Tamarac Square, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 14 July 2007
Time: 5:30 pm
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Directed by: Michael Corrente (A Shot at Glory )
Screenplay by: Terence Winter (Get Rich or Die Tryin')
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Alec Baldwin (The Good Shepherd) • Freddie Prinze Jr (Happily N'Ever After) • Scott Caan (Ocean's Thirteen) • Mena Suvari (Factory Girl ) • Jerry Ferrara ("Entourage") • Robert Turano ("Rescue Me") • Phyllis Kay ("The Sopranos")
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
At first read, a synopsis of Brooklyn Rules sounds like it might be a pretty good movie. Set in the 1980s, three best friends in their early 20s, all having grown up in a mob ruled Brooklyn, wrestle with the changing times and a tragic result of a decision to put pride before common sense. See. Doesn't that sound like it might be decent. Cast Alec Baldwin as the king pin of their Brooklyn neighborhood, Caesar Manganaro, and Freddie Prinze Jr. and Scott Caan as two of the three friends, and you'd think you have, again, the ingredients of a sure-fire hit. Unfortunately, the predictability of the outcome and the plot that toils along seemingly lasting as long as those tortuously hot summers in a New York City apartment with no air-conditioning to speak of, and only modest investments in the characters by the actors who seemed unable to decide if they were going to or not going to do New York accents—and, by the way, New Yorkers will know that the accents of the various Burroughs are not all the same, so to be more accurate or fair, the actors seemed incapable of a true Brooklyn accent.
"…predictable…plodding…like plain toast in a New York delicatessen."
The film is called Brooklyn Rules, so, while I generally don't hold accents against actors too much, this film calls for authenticity. No one in the film came close, and your reading the words of a kid with two Burroughs represented on his mom's side (Brooklyn and Richmond—which is on Staten Island). The film starts off with Mike, Carmine, and Bobby all little kids, junior wise guys (not in the mafia sense in the sense of thinking they were all cool and tough). Carmine is obsessed with his appearance, Michael puts 50 cents in the church offering plate and steal back a dollar which is only slightly worse than Bobby who pretends to put money in but puts in nothing at all. The threesome is very tight, made tighter by a discovery of the remains of a mob hit in the front seat of a car near one of their haunts down by the water. The guy has two bullet holes in his head. Carmine collects a lighter and a pack of cigarettes from the dashboard, Bobby rescues the beagle puppy from a box in the back seat, and Michael pockets a handgun he finds in the glove box. The three are now officially best friends for life. On a typical summer day of hanging around the neighborhood, they happen to run in to Ceasar. He shouts boo at them causing Mike and Bobby to disappear into thin air. Carmine, however, just stands his ground. Caesar likes this and imagines that one day the kid may have a future in his organization. As the narrator and adult Michael, Freddie Prinze Jr. brings us forward to the boys' lives after high school. Michael is a senior at Columbia hoping to get into law school, Bobby has been dating the love of his life for two years and hopes to become a letter carrier if he can pass the postal exam, and Carmine has predictably ended up dancing on the side of the mob. While not fully committed, he's a shade away and consumes all his free time studying the interrelationships between the various members of organized crime. The three are still very, very close friends, though Michael's move to Manhattan has put some distance between him and his friends not just geographically but socially as well. They know it and he refuses to know it. Michael has also grown a bit sweet on Ellen (Mena Suari), a rich girl from Connecticut who has no real comprehension of the land where Michael grew up. Things are fairly mundane for the threesome until one evening in their favorite diner when a mob underling bully names Gino (Christian Maelen) swipes Carmine's chair when he's in the bathroom. Honor above reason takes hold of Michael who punches the cretin squarely in the nose. This doesn't sit well with Gino and a resulting brawl ensues. Everyone narrowly escapes alive, though the accompanying Ellen has never witnessed anything like this, and the ordeal practically dissolves her relationship with Mike. Fearing for their lives, Carmine convinces Caesar to back his friends and make this go away putting him and his friends far further into Caesar's world than makes either very comfortable. Just when it seems things will get back to normal in Brooklyn, a huge string of mob hits on the big bosses shakes up power. No sooner does Caesar Manganaro get shot, then Mike and Bobby realize they are again in danger. It's not too difficult to predict what happens next, nor too complicated to consider the fall out. Eventually, someone is going to pay for their insolence and it's always the least deserving guy.
Alec Baldwin Buy From Art.com
Aside from the on-again-off-again accents and the predictability of the plot, overall the quality of the acting is hampered quite a bit by the plodding pace. It takes an awfully long time to get where we all know it's going, and the build up wasn't really worth it. Director Michael Corrente did achieve a relatively authentic feel to the film when it came to the sets and costumes though certain vernacular of the characters was as misplaced as the accents. Additionally, Mena Suvari seemed a respectable fit for her character as did Prinze jr. and Caan. Jerry Ferrara, however, was probably a bit too inexperienced to carry the important role of Bobby to the degree necessary. He does not instill the character with sufficient depth to command the necessary empathy later in the film. Overall, Brooklyn Rules comes out sort of half-done. It's got the look and feel, to a degree, of a lower budget independent film, despite some big names in the cast, but none of the true edginess and outright independence that really compelling independent films rely upon to gain attention or justifiable investment. Walking the thin line between the studio feature and the independent film world doesn't play out well for this film causing it to get sort of lost in the shuffle like plain toast in a New York delicatessen.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
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Other Projects Featuring Brooklyn Rules (2007)
Cast Members
Alec Baldwin
• Freddie Prinze Jr • Scott CaanMena Suvari
• Jerry Ferrara • Robert TuranoPhyllis Kay
Director
Michael Corrente
Writer
Terence Winter
Unfortunately, even the great screen presence of Alex Baldwin as a Brooklyn neighborhood kingpin, Caesar Manganaro, nor growing young leading men, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Scott Caan, could elevate this mundane mob picture focused on the lives of three childhood best friends that grow up into a complicated mess due to their inability to put common sense above pride in affairs of the mob. The net result is a film that, while tragic, fails to sink in or have much potential for any long-lasting impact on the memory of those few likely to see it. Making the rounds of the independent theaters on its way to DVD release, it is a true wonder how this film got the go ahead.
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