asthenic Some well known, not necessarily brilliant, actors are collected to stroke a neophyte director's ego in a very tedious and boring film that is a direct steal from Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers," right down to the soundtrack. Only there is nothing relevant about what is said, other than that there is corruption everywhere. C'mon, let's get a fresh idea or two before stealing from a classic. Charleze Theron delivers another chameleon like performance and Ellen Burstyn twitters away like always. Faye Dunaway has long ago convinced us that she hasn't any real idea of what acting is about other than trying to steal scenes, and Mark Walhberg covers character nuances from A-B(apathetic to bland) while huge pipe organs pound out prophetic over dramatic music to establish the doom to come. It was interesting to note that this pedestrian director didn't direct anything of note thereafter.

antoniotierno A very sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story. Mark Wahlberg is just out of prison and determined to keep off troubles but inevitably runs into them when getting involved in the sabotage and in the unforeseen murder. In terms of conventional suspense, the film is too much muted and sombre in order for it to deliver the goods convincingly but as a character study and an exploration of different notions of family, friendship, duty and loyalty, the careful attention to detail pays off. A great cast (Phoenix and Theron perfect as wheel) does help, as does the strongly surprising use of good music.

LeonLouisRicci Gloomy, soft spoken, and bare this story about corruption and its effect on Family and Friend relationships maybe too low key and laid back for mass appeal. It does offer a Name Cast and a slightly inaccurate Mob Boss attraction but this one is quite different than most.The Film is about character and stylish confrontations and wise(guy) cracking Characters are nowhere around this slow of pace, but tense, Noirish Melodrama. The best parts here are interpersonal relationships and responsibility put to the test in some gripping set pieces.The Movie does fail to completely render its Political uncovering and City Hall money grubbing. Those scenes feel less recovered and tend to stultify the pace. It is this weak exposition that keeps the better parts from becoming fully engaging and some of its themes a bit unclear.

witz-2 It is a tale that has been told before. Nothing really new here. The cast was very good. The production design was OK. Lighting and sound should have been better. I wonder about the choices the director made.It is one thing to try to make a Noir film, but I was totally turned off by the hushed tones, and whispers. Conversations seemed to take place in echo chamber. As it continued to be unhearable, it became unwatchable.If you have a quiet media room, then you might get more out of this than I did.There are plenty of other crime dramas out there.