THE UNPOPULAR OPINION is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATHED. We're hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Enjoy!
****SOME SPOILERS ENSUE****
When PARASITE won big at the Academy Awards a few weeks ago, director Bong Joon Ho made an effort to call out the influence that Martin Scorsese had on his love of film. The sentiment was echoed through the night as the camera often panned over Scorsese's face in the crowd in a reverential nod to his illustrious career behind the camera. The director of so many iconic films was a direct influence on not just PARASITE but also Quentin Tarantino, a fellow nominee for ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD as well as Todd Phillips whose JOKER was an homage to Scorsese's early films TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY. It should come as no surprise that Martin Scorsese was nominated at the Academy Awards as each film that he makes is a worthy addition to the pantheon of American cinema. But, THE IRISHMAN is by far the director's weakest film and did not deserve the acclaim or recognition it received this past year.
In short, THE IRISHMAN is bad. Somewhere in the complicated and lengthy tale of Frank Sheeran and his involvement with organized crime and the death of Jimmy Hoffa is a story that was destined for the big screen. But, lost between inane conversations and horrendous special effects, THE IRISHMAN ends up being a case of excess the likes of which few filmmakers ever get the chance to indulge in. If this movie had been helmed by anyone other than Martin Scorsese, it would have been written off as a shadow of what a great organized crime film could be. THE IRISHMAN wants to be the scale of THE GODFATHER with the intensity of GOODFELLAS but instead feels like a band past their prime playing their greatest hits with diminishing skills.
The biggest failing of THE IRISHMAN is the running time. Normally, the prospect of over three hours of Martin Scorsese in his element would have been enough to give me a cinematic boner, but so much of this film is just unnecessary. There is a sequence where Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) and Frank meet with Tony Provenzano (Stephen Graham) who arrives late to the meeting. For minutes before his arrival and then for several minutes during their meeting, Hoffa shares his offense at how late Tony Pro was to the meeting. Back and forth they debate the length of time that actually constitutes an insult to the waiting party. For a minute or so, it feels like it could be building to a memorable "Shine Box" moment in the film, but when it just keeps going it feels redundant. So much of THE IRISHMAN is like this that it would not be outside the realm of possibility to trim at least thirty minutes of the film just from these extraneous moments.
This excess also falls to Robert De Niro's performance. De Niro is a legend but there is a reason he did not garner an Oscar nod for his role here. Throughout the film, so much of De Niro's acting is his mumbling and stumbling during conversations which makes him seem like he is doing an impression of himself. De Niro was too old for this role and the de-aging technology does not work as well on him as it does with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. Both Pesci and Pacino are able to rely on their acting skills without getting physical, but De Niro is required to do so much with his body that he is often shown walking, fighting, or running and no amount of CGI can hide his 76 year frame. The infamous kicking scene is just the most blatant moment, but every shot of De Niro shows him moving like an old man with an overly smoothed face that doesn't make him look young, just unrealistic.
When de-aged, all of these actors still look like they are in their 50s which is fine for Pacino and Pesci, but De Niro is supposed to go all the way back to Frank Sheeran as a 27-year-old and it is just far too distracting. In GOODFELLAS, the passage of time could be accomplished with some hair dye and make-up, but the decades needed to pull off this story should have resulted in multiple actors playing Frank Sheeran over his life. From middle age to the scenes set in the retirement home, De Niro is convincing and physically suited for the role and his muttering line delivery fits a man well into his advanced age. But, through the rest of the movie, De Niro seems like his is sleepwalking his way through the tale and barely musters a fraction of the energy that Pesci and Pacino bring to the screen.
The themes and messages that Martin Scorsese embeds in THE IRISHMAN are not lost on me. This is a film about mortality and what we leave behind. At the end of the film, Frank Sheeran is alone and everyone he cares about is either dead or wants nothing to do with him. He retains an honor and never rats on those he held dear, but what did it ultimately cost him in the end? Unfortunately, the repeated use of freeze frames and on screen text showing us how so many of the characters, major and minor alike, met their ultimate fate fails to drive home this message about life and death rather than just building a body count. In many ways, it undermines the themes of the film by reveling far too much in it's own excessiveness.
THE IRISHMAN is a movie that was a passion project for Martin Scorsese and that passion shows on screen. But, the cracks in the veneer are also very apparent as the filmmaker did not have to deal with the confines of a studio production. This, ultimately, serves as the downfall for a movie that is far from the greatness that so many heaped on it in 2019. I appreciate that it exists if only because it gives us some of the best work from both Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, but it equally falters on the resumes of Robert De Niro and Scorsese himself. As a swan song for his organized crime films, THE IRISHMAN is the weakest of them all despite a great soundtrack and beautiful lensing by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Steve Zaillian's screenplay is full of the stutters and over-abundance of useless dialogue that he is equally at fault for the shortcomings of this film which may be the only short thing about it. Maybe someday a director's cut of this movie will exist and clock in at just about two hours. Something tells me that would be a vast improvement.