“You are the actor!” He shouts Anna Genovese to her separate spouse, the Gangster Vito Genovese, in a court room where she is affirming unlikely that lacks funds to support her. “The best actor in the world! Better than Clark Gable!”
And we all laugh. Everyone probably laughed on the set too. Because man playing Vito In “The Alto Caballeros” It is none other than Robert de Niro, in fact one of the best actors in the world, revered in our time as Gable was in his.
It is a cute and APT moment too, because Barry Levinson movie, Which aims but cannot channel the magic of the films of the Mafia of decades such as “Goodfellas”, although written by the same writer, Nicholas Pileggi, it is about Niro. Actually, it’s about Niro and Niro. The man plays main roles, enemy the mafia Genovese and Frank Costello, on a story based on real events.
Is it a trick? Surely. Works? Well, there is the entertainment value, after all, this is from Niro, and if he feels that De Niro’s most of De Niro are always better, then it follows that two roles are better than one. Others may feel that it has an environment of “trap for parents” with the theme of the mafia, less heavy than the obviously violent issue should have.
In addition, “Goodfellas” fans may wonder if Vito’s role was once intended for Joe Pesci (the film has been in development forever), so the character of the impulsive personality is similar and manically suspicious of that actor. On the other hand, in two brief scenes where those of Niros appear together for transcendental meetings, one could be forgiven for wondering if the Pacino was online at some point, for a similar moment to “heat.”
Fortunately, De Niro is based here on makeup In “The Irish” Although it should be said that sometimes their two characters are simply not seen enough. More importantly, “Los Caballeros Alto”, despite their pedigree, does not get up near the heights of its glorious predecessors. It is, rather, a pleasant rhythm, if it is a rhythm, looks at a relationship between two men, where unfortunately we are arriving quite late in the game.
However, there are some crepiting surprises: that domestic scene of the court; a tense and televised Grilling Senate Committee; And finally a climate meeting of mafia bosses in the field, with fabulous period vehicles parked on the grass and sausages on the grill, which is interrupted in a comically sudden way.
We started in 1957 in Manhattan. Costello, after a holiday respectably with high society, stops in its elegant apartment building. “This is for you,” says the nervous man who shoots him in the head in his lobby.
The shooter (Cosmo Jarvis), sent by Genovese, makes a bad mistake, since his boss will remember him later: “You have to go see if they are dead!” Surprisingly, Costello survives. “It should have been paying more attention,” says the mafia gentle who favors diplomacy on blood, telling the future.
Then we return in time to discover how things got so bad.
With the help of ancient photos and images edited ingeniously to include the actors who play young Frank and Vito, we learned that the two were good friends as young Italian immigrants in the streets. But when Vito mixed in a case of murder, he had to flee to Italy, leaving Frank with the head of the business.
Years later, Vito returns and wants his role at the top of the Mafia family. And so things go south, quickly.
Women in their lives reflect the differences between the two men. The wife of Costello, over 50, Bobbie (Debra Messing, making a good raid in the drama), is a loyal couple that urges her husband to retire and leave New York, along with her adorable dogs (Niro’s own dogs, dressed in coats and mink hats, an Oscar of costume design for this canine fashion!). Genovese’s wife, Anna (Kathrine Narducci, excellent) is a businesswoman, owns a gay bar, whose fierce union with Vito becomes disastrous.
A mere look at Wikipedia will tell you that both Genovese and Costello finally died non -violently. There is much in “The Alto Knights” that will not see there, for example, the movie version of who designed that summit of the cultivation lands and why.
But seeing dozens of mafia running as devils when the police occur in their meeting is a cry, and it is difficult to overcome the moment when two of them insist on suspicious police: “We are hunters!”
If only ingenious moments were more frequent in a two -hour film than somehow, unfortunately, it feels much longer.
“The Alto Knights”, a launch of Warner Bros. Pictures, has been qualified as by the Motion Picture Association “for violence and generalized language.” Execution time: 120 minutes. Two stars of four.
