Simpson A no spoiler review for a film that is based on a true story, has a show and a book. I'm always weary of films that try to tell stories of multiple characters or of ones that span years or decades. This film tries to do both and fails miserably.There's just too much to say and not enough time. There are several problems with this film and it suffers from worst-of-both-worlds syndrome. It has too much story (like TV shows) but not enough time (like film). It has a bigger budget (than TV, $ per minute) but ends up looking like cheap TV shows (amateur production values, pretty boys as actors).The TV show is exactly the opposite. It looks cinematic (even though it's shot on 16mm), the actors are better cast (Libano looks terrifying, the minor gang members look like criminals), there's more time to tell the story (politics, communism, Aldo Moro, fascism, the state, Camorra).Watching the show first, I could barely watch the film. It felt so cheap, it gives the feeling of a 90's MTV music video, both cheesy and dated. The story goes by so fast, like a "previously on Romanzo Criminale" refresher at the beginning of a new season.The show is the story of the gang. The film looks like a trailer by how fast it goes.I rate the show 10/10 to the film's 4/10. The show is a world class series, Golden Age quality. The TV is an easily-forgettable anecdote in the history of Italian cinema.

johnnyboyz Romanzo Criminale, or Crime Novel in English, reminded me of recent Scorsese film The Departed; a film that's fast, smooth, slick and glamorous but knows where it stands on the line that on one side actually contains glamorisation. I may not be overly familiar with the bulk of the cannon that is Italian crime cinema, but Crime Novel seems to want to appeal to the broadest possible audience; there is a showy sense of colour and energy, a feeling of the broad and of the epic when, in personal terms, low-grade and gritty content always works best for me. I think Crime Novel has the necessary characters to tell a 'proper' crime story what with prostitutes, petty thugs, drug dealers and kidnappers but it remembers all too often to 'have fun' with its subject matter. Had the characters been slightly less-believable and more akin to something from a Guy Ritchie attempt, the 'clash' I felt was there might not have been.Regardless, and despite this wavering sense in relation to content, the film feels good enough to warrant a pretty strong recommendation; and film that doesn't necessarily know its foundations but knows exactly where it wants to go when it's off and running. The film covers a number of petty Italian criminals throughout the 1970s and briefly onwards from there. They are Ice, Lebanese and Dandy; three kids that come of age in the 1960s when they steal a car, briefly avoid the police and then see their fourth friend die as one of them is arrested and jailed. The film gets across the direction the makers will take it down very early on and in some style, introducing the leads in a flashy and sexy manner; many will have issues with young 'gangsters' inhabiting the screen with their 'cool' nick-names such as 'Ice' and so forth. Crime Novel carries the same tone as, and certainly takes inspiration from, pieces like City of God and any Guy Ritiche venture into this genre, but it does fall short of those examples.It's oddly symbolic that a kidnapping of a certain someone would act as the launching of the soon to be enlarged group; it signifies a taking of something for personal gain, a swiping of a person that gives them the opportunity to swipe the city for themselves. These guys party hard by night in a carefree and obnoxious manner, they stab people by day; something the film wants us to understand very early on when that sense of juxtaposition is apparent as is a feeling of low-level crime, a sense that these people are not afraid of what they do and may well inhabit public spaces, continue with whatever it is they enjoy and might well be never more than a few yards away from you.The film lays its goals down in a pretty clear cut fashion when the leader of this rising group makes reference to the Roman empire, he wants something large; powerful and something to be feared as the result of all this. The notion is in debt more toward American crime films of old, Scarface and The Godfather in particular as this study of the hierarchy is set up. But Crime Novel doesn't want to be about one man as much as it does rather a few. Throughout the duration of the picture, characters will fall in love; speak of eloping; aid in the taking over of entire drug empires and go on journeys of psychological paranoia while law enforcers around them go on an ever-escalating pursuit of these criminals, that see themselves dice with temptation and death mere scenes apart. The film even takes time to incorporate Italy's 1982 World Cup win.So you've got a lot going on. The film doesn't hang about, and I don't think it really cares whether we connect with all of the characters in the piece, just so long as our attention is drawn to one or two. What acts as an interesting element to all of this is the character of Patrizia (Mouglalis), the prostitute and lone female figure amidst this male dominated world and genre. The sexual tension between her and leading law-enforcer Scialoja (Accorsi), which is displayed in certain scenes, comes across as something out of another film entirely – the odd thing is, most of these scenes are more interesting than most others as a sort of side-show of lust and temptation, always drawing you into the criminal world. The character of Patrizia, I suppose, acts as a bridge between them; those being 'right' and 'wrong'.If most scenes in the film are raw and enjoy the 'in-your-face' delivery, then the scenes Scialoja and Patrizia share carry a certain amount of slow burning energy that the others lack. If the performances of Mouglalis and Accorsi are impressive, it's because they have something raw enough to work with, which is slightly more than the rest of the cast can really lay claim to. Importantly, Crime Novel isn't a glorification. By the end, the film has gone so far that it thinks it can branch off into a revenge tale, and given its sheer energy and ruthlessness in telling a sprawling crime piece, it sort of earns the right if the priorities are correct – which they are. Made with energy and a fair amount of efficiency, Romanzo Criminale delivers without romancing criminals, too much.

JoeytheBrit Romanzo Criminale, the Italian title of this run-of the-mill gangster film, literally translates as Crime Novel, a much more prosaic handle that in many ways indicates the film's failings. In a nutshell, the film offers so much more than it actually delivers. Touted by some as an Italian 'Godfather' or 'Goodfellas' it actually looks like a TV mini-series that has been compressed (badly) into a theatrical movie running time. The direction is flat and lacks imagination, and the film fails completely to capture anything of the era it depicts. We are given few clues as to the passing of time and of the changes in the characters this passage inflicts. Coppola and Scorsese cared passionately about their projects and it shows up there on the screen, but here you're just left with the impression of someone labouring slavishly by the book. The atmospheric score is the only aspect of the film that manages to breathe even a whisper of life into the images on the screen.Casting is also a problem. In director Michele Placido's world, nearly all criminals have catwalk looks, and bear none of the scars and hardness inherent with the life of a hardened and violent career criminal. Only the character Lebanese is remotely convincing, (his equating of criminals with the emperors of old is one of the few inspired touches in the film) but he is dispensed with much too soon. Kim Rossi Stuart broods manfully as Ice, the tragic anti-hero, but never once convinces you that he can point a gun in your face and pull the trigger.The links between politics and crime are potentially fascinating, but they are only hesitantly - and confusingly - explored here, as if writer Cataldo is unsure of how to convey his message in the inadequate running time.All in all, a major disappointment.

obradovic-jelena I expected this film to be a Pulp Fiction spin off or some mediocre crime drama with the usual shootings and token women thrown in. However, the film is excellent primarily because it focuses just as much on the complex relationships between friends and lovers, as well as the workings of the gangs themselves. Freddo and Roberta are one of the few convincing on screen couples, and the film is a great exploration of loyalties. The pace is slower than in most 'heist' type dramas but this works to its advantage. It is visually uncluttered and the music is not owepowering, so it really allows you to contemplate what the film is really about: love, loyalty, friendship. Whoever approaches this as just a film about a gang is missing out on a lot. I wasn't familiar with any of the actors before but they completely convinced me. Someone complained about criminals being too pretty in this film, but I have to say, it is only halfway through that I noticed that Freddo is actually quite attractive, as is Nero, but the film is structured and filmed in such a way that your attention is not immediately drawn to this. Rather you get to know the characters first, and only focus on their physical attributes second.