New York Stories
by Chris Dashiell

The gangster or corruption movie has become America's version of historical tragedy. The fact that it tends to romanticize people who in real life are anything but romantic doesn't mean that there aren't real rewards to be had from this genre.

THE YARDS is James Gray's second film (the first was the interesting Little Odessa). He avoids the proverbial sophomore slump through sheer ambition - this tale of divided loyalties in a New York family, against the background of crooked dealings in the transit business, aspires to tragedy. It doesn't quite hit the mark, but the attempt is often engrossing.

Leo (Mark Wahlberg) returns to his home in Queens after spending six years in prison. He's determined to go straight, applying for work with his stepfather (James Caan), the head of a mass transit firm. But he falls in with his old pal Willie (Joaquin Phoenix), the firm's strong-arm man, who is engaged to Leo's cousin Erica (Charlize Theron), and the trouble he lands in this time could put him in the electric chair.

The film's tone is restrained and sad. Leo, the central character, is not a dynamic hero type, but a taciturn, withdrawn figure, unsure of himself and haunted by a sense of failure. Wahlberg is very tight and low-key in the role - it's an intriguing performance that shows some real versatility on his part. Gray is not concerned with heightening a sense of evil, but in showing how evil things happen through the agency of people who seem decent enough in their ordinary affairs. Caan is terrific playing a racketeer with a human face. Phoenix practically steals the picture with his portrait of a reckless would-be gangster who believes that he must betray his friend in order to survive. Theron, made up in punk style with black hair and eye shadow, hasn't convinced me that she's much of an actress, but she's not bad. The film also features Ellen Burstyn and Faye Dunaway as sisters, Leo and Erica's mother respectively - their parts aren't big enough to showcase their talents very well.

The Yards is something of a lesson in how style can make a script seem more substantial than it is. For the film's weakness is mainly its screenplay (by Gray and Matt Reeves), which tries to cover too much ground and never goes deep enough to convey a strong sense of the milieu, either of the family or the corrupt world of mass transit politics. Some of the plot mechanics defy credibility, and seem more determined by the need of the writers to reach a result than by a natural progression. And yet, while watching it, many of these flaws went by without affecting my enjoyment, and I attribute that to the style. Gray has a fine sense for the unspoken emotional ties between his characters. Howard Shore's music adds a lot to the mood. Most of all, the movie is impeccably shot - you couldn't ask for a better visual texture than that provided by cinematographer Harris Savedos. It's one of the best looking films of the year.

For some reason I don't understand, the release of this movie was held up for over a year. Yes, it has its problems. I was much more impressed while watching it than I was in retrospect. But it certainly has more substance, and shows more promise for its director, than the majority of crime or action films that get major releases. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long for James Gray's next picture.

On to another time and borough - the 1950s in Staten Island - for Raymond De Felitta's TWO FAMILY HOUSE, a warm-hearted little charmer about breaking through restrictions of family, culture and prejudice to follow one's own dream. Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli) is a factory worker who once aspired to be a lounge singer, and whose every other plan to succeed has failed. His wife Estelle (Kathrine Narducci) is impatient with his schemes, but reluctantly goes along with his plan to buy an old house and turn it into a bar. Unfortunately the house has an obnoxious Irish tenant who - due to an obscure old provision in the law - is immune from eviction. On the day that Buddy and some of his pals try to forcibly evict him, the tenant's young wife Mary (Kelly McDonald) gives birth to a baby boy who happens to be black, and this becomes a neighborhood scandal. The tenant situation is resolved. But for reasons he doesn't quite understand, Buddy begins to take a tender and solicitious interest in Mary and her child, unbeknownst to his prejudiced family and friends.

Buddy's gradual drifting away, against all conscious intent, from the constrictions of his environment, is both novel and touching. It's a tribute to Rispoli's talent that he makes this working class dreamer (a sort of sensitive Ralph Kramden) believable, and there is real feeling and chemistry in his scenes with McDonald. I was troubled, however, that De Felitta's script puts the onus of Buddy's failed dreams onto a shrewish, ignorant wife. (Narducci's acting is good, but her part is truly thankless.) Estelle's motivation and character are all too easy a target for the film's liberal point of view. And once you catch the story's drift, there are no great surprises or twists in Two Family House. In terms of production quality, the movie puts the lie to the idea that small independent flicks have less polish. The acting, photography, editing, costumes and set design are all first-rate. Overall, a good effort and definitely worth a look - especially if you need some cheering up.

*

Trailer talk: It's back to JFK country for Kevin Costner, playing chief aide to the Prez during the Cuban missile crisis in Thirten Days. Well, the preview doesn't look too bad. But I tend to distrust political movies that inflate real events into Big Dramatic Moments at the expense of thoughtfulness or realism, and I suspect, cynic that I am, that this will be more of the same.

Forget the Tao of Steve. How about the Tao of Gerard Depardieu? He beds Uma Thurman in that new period flick Vatel. Inspiration for chunky guys everywhere - or (cynic that I am, I am) another lamentable example of older men coupled on screen with women two decades or more their junior. You decide.

CineScene, 2000.