The Irishman

The Irishman may be the most anticipated film of the year.  An all star cast including Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino is sure to be a hit.  On top of that, it's directed by the great Martin Scorsese.  Annie and I hosted my in-laws for a movie night, as it is a Netflix original.  It was a fun night filled with good food, great company, and an interesting story.

The movie is LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!  With a run time of 3hrs and 29minutes it feels as tiring as it sounds.  My father in-law read the book the film is based on ("I Heard You Paint Houses"), and both him and my mother in-law were familiar with the story.  Annie and I were not.  The Irishman is based on Frank Sheeran (Deniro), an infamous hitman.  He works for Italian mob boss Russell Bufalino (Pesci), as well as union president Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).  The movie examines the interaction of the mob in politics in the 50s/60s, as well as the corruption of the teamsters.  Sheeran finds himself with a decision on where his loyalty lies.  Finally answering the mystery of who killed Hoffa.

The Irishman has great music.  It has great acting.  It has great cinematography.  And it has a great story.  Albeit, it's not that great.  The length is intolerable, with observable opportunities for editing and cutting out scenes.  In fact, the final 30min of the film didn't need to exist; and that might have fixed it!  I found myself frequently confused on what era and what part of the story we were watching.  The film jumps around a lot, and it's timeline is quite hard to follow.  What makes things even more complex, are the special effects.  The "de-aging" they did with Deniro creates another component to keep track of.  

The Irishman will deservedly get nominated for many awards.  It is well done and strong.  I just felt it could've been delivered better, and for that I'm disappointed.  

Photo Credit: Joe.co.uk

Rating: 3.5/5

Movie Information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0