Review of Gomorrah (2008) by The M — 16 Sep 2009

Gomorrah adopts a documentary-like aesthetic to illustrate the mundane workings of the lower peons in an Italian crime syndicate for what purpose? The two characters of most interest (a couple of amateur thugs who play at being tough) exit the film early and do not appear until the films final fifteen minutes. The finale reaches an approximation of the power the filmmakers intended but its a case of too little too late. The majority of the film focuses on the tepid daily happenings of the syndicate with a pace that can only be called deliberate and a focus that could only be called erratic. Some scenes border on the ludicrous. The most prominent example being the heart wrenching scene when a young man renounces his life of crime after his mentor throws away a bunch of oranges given to him by an elderly lady (I'm not kidding). Any half-way intelligent editor could have excised at least forty minutes from this overwrought, boring, senseless, meandering exercise in tedium and produced a more substantive and entertaining experience. Martin scorese called this the greatest greatest Gangster film ever. Perhaps he saw a bit of his own overrated, meaningless feature Mean Streets in this mess.

(Let it be known I love Martin scoreses.