{"id":1767,"date":"2020-01-03T21:28:43","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T21:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2022-07-21T15:54:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:54:26","slug":"the-irishman-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/03\/the-irishman-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irishman (2019) Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in The Irishman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were all heavily anticipating Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Irishman<\/em>\u2014his long, VFX-heavy and Netflix-funded\nadaptation of Charles Brandt\u2019s nonfiction narrative book, I Heard You Paint Houses<\/em>. The book and film examine the life of\nFrank Sheenan, a mafia hitman who claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa\u2014the labor\nunion leader to whom he was exceptionally close both personally and\nprofessionally\u2014in 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many critics have hailed the film as a masterpiece since\nbeing released last November (with a controversially limited theatrical run),\nsaying it might be the best film of the director\u2019s legendary career. General audiences,\nhowever, have expressed disinterest and boredom with the film on social media. The Irishman<\/em> seems to have caused heated\ndebate amongst popular audiences and film enthusiasts as to what great movies\ntruly are today. Certain remarks about Marvel movies not being real cinema that\nwere made by Scorsese himself during The\nIrishman\u2019<\/em>s press tour indisputably had a hand in igniting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that being said, it is with some guilt and shame that I\nhave to admit I did not love The\nIrishman. <\/em>Maybe it means I don\u2019t appreciate great filmmaking anymore\nbecause I\u2019m a big dumb American who also watches and loves a few Marvel movies,\nbut it might also mean I\u2019m not going to hail something as the cinematic Second\nComing just because I can see what it\u2019s trying\n<\/em>to do or just because it\u2019s by Scorsese and stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci,\nAl Pacino and Harvey Keitel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I liked<\/em> The Irishman. I appreciate its artistry. I admire the fact that I sat through its three-and-a-half–hour runtime without feeling it– for the most part, at least. Longtime Scorsese editor Themla Schoonmaker should be a household name right beside his. Steven Zaillian continues to exhibit some of the most subtle and intelligent screenwriting techniques known to man. And, it goes without saying, nobody on this planet knows how to direct a movie like Martin Scorsese– arguably the world\u2019s greatest living filmmaker. The Irishman<\/em> looks, sounds and flows like it was made by genius professionals because it was. There\u2019s no denying it is an impressive accomplishment, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily make it a great one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keitel is memorable but brief and Pesci steals the show with quiet command as Sheenan\u2019s Mafioso mentor, but De Niro and Pacino rarely showcase the greatness we all know to be in them. They both appear to be on autopilot in The Irishman<\/em>, relying on mannerisms we\u2019ve seen and line readings we\u2019ve heard countless times before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in The Irishman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his portrayal of Jimmy Hoffa, Pacino is entertaining but\nalso seems to have temporarily forgotten (as he can often do) that a variety of\nranges between extremely loud and extremely quiet actually can exist. He huffs,\npuffs, rants and raves like only Pacino can, but the heart of what drives the\nman is never fully understood in The\nIrishman<\/em> (see Danny DeVito\u2019s much-underrated 1992 film Hoffa<\/em> starring Jack Nicholson for that). It\u2019s not Jimmy Hoffa we\u2019re\nwatching, here, it\u2019s Al Pacino impersonating Al Pacino impersonating Jimmy\nHoffa\u2014and a movie of this scope needs more shading and depth for such a pivotal\nrole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Niro portrays Frank Sheenan in various stages of his life\nas he climbs the career ladder from truck driver to mob hitman to union\nofficial. He appears tired and uninterested with every age he portrays\u2014and not\nin a way that suggests it\u2019s a character choice. Of course he\u2019s always solid\n(and completely nails a few key moments), but De Niro simply may have little left\nto give this type of character. I see more moments of inspiration in his supporting\nroles of the last decade (Silver Linings\nPlaybook,<\/em> Joker <\/em>etc.) than I do\nin his massive amounts of screen time in The\nIrishman.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t help that De Niro is completely physically\nmiscast. We\u2019ll get into his age in a moment, but there are no digital\nenhancements or blue contact lenses on this planet that could ever make the\nItalian-American icon believable as an Irishman. A younger, hungrier (and fully\nor at least partially Irish) presence like Colin Farrell or Sean Penn would\nhave been been a more appropriate choice for the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the actors\u2019 work suffers from the film\u2019s (in)famous digital effects\u2014which are used to de-age them at different intervals of the time-hopping story. In De Niro\u2019s defense, his performance has to bear them the most. When the effects are most prominent, skin appears porcelain and facial expressions are noticeably flattened\u2014particularly around the eyes. Most glaringly, the actors can\u2019t help but move and behave like elderly men (and ones who are wearing very strange masks, at that). While viewing what is supposed to be a forty-something De Niro throw a man though a store window, I actually wanted to reach out and help him so he wouldn\u2019t hurt himself in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thanos in The Irishman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Such VFX techniques have had more success in video games or\nMarvel movies (sorry, Mr. Scorsese) in recent years\u2014but that\u2019s largely because\nthey fit into the digital tapestry of those works. The Irishman<\/em>\u2014with its period settings and true-to-life\naspirations\u2014is completely at odds with them. Last October\u2019s Gemini Man <\/em>actually worked (in my\nopinion, at least) when we saw a middle-aged Will Smith battle his\ntwenty-something self. This is partially because Smith is still in good enough\nshape to pull it off, but it\u2019s mainly because the effects perfectly blended\ninto that particular film\u2019s slick blockbuster aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a historical perspective (the accuracy of which is\nquestionable depending on which account you read), the film is fascinating.\nHowever, the unique combination of gusto, passion and humanity that is always\npresent in Scorsese\u2019s greatest works– even the quieter ones like Kundun <\/em>or Silence<\/em>–is missing from The\nIrishman. <\/em>You don\u2019t feel any love or hatred between the characters, you\njust dispassionately observe them with no connection or empathy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hoffa tells Sheenan halfway through the film that he\nloves him, it comes across forced and abrupt. When Sheenan desperately attempts\nat a reconciliation with his estranged daughter (Anna Paquin) later in life,\nit\u2019s not entirely believable that he would care. The Irishman <\/em>may succeed at being a stimulating intellectual\nexperience, but it ultimately fails at being an emotionally engaging one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many critics have praised Scorsese\u2019s subdued style for The Irishman<\/em> and how it reflects its\nspiritual themes of guilt, regret and loss in the final stages of life\u2014but I simply\nfound the film to be a tad flat. For all the massive efforts put behind it,\nwatching The Irishman<\/em> and the strained\nperformances of De Niro and Pacino within it is kind of like watching your\ngrandfather hang Christmas lights from a tall ladder. You applaud the effort,\nbut you\u2019re also trying to figure out a polite way to tell him that he really\nshouldn\u2019t be doing this anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRADE: B<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were all heavily anticipating Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Irishman\u2014his long, VFX-heavy and Netflix-funded adaptation of Charles Brandt\u2019s nonfiction narrative book, I Heard You Paint Houses. The book and film examine the life of Frank Sheenan, a mafia hitman who claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa\u2014the labor union leader to whom he was exceptionally close both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3199,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions\/3199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}