Review of Hoffa (1992) by Simon D — 31 Mar 2014

The mystery of Jimmy Hoffa going missing is an interesting question, but to really understand why it is such a notorious story I had to understand what made Jimmy Hoffa the figure he was, and any film with Jack Nicholson in such a role is one is simply cannot miss.

While I can't say for sure if Hoffa is a film that stays true to the real world because the only story of Jimmy Hoffa I know of comes from the film, I can say that I did iin face enjoy Hoffa.

The film is riddled with flaws, such as the fact that it is slowly paced and a lot of the time its dramatic elements don't transition too well between each other and so the mood has to constantly be edgy. This isn't always successful, and it leaves the film with a bit much of a rough edge.

Hoffa focuses largely on what Jimmy Hoffa did from a third person perspective and doesn't spend much of the time making a visual representation of what is happening. While the focus it puts on the characters and the events that unfold in the courtoom make for effective drama, it just makes the biopic a bit more theoretical than in depth which it could have been. One of the problems with Hoffa is that it doesn't go into depth as much as it really could have about who Jimmy Hoffa was. While it does give a certain sense of mystery to the story which reflects the mystery surrounding the man in real life and his disappearance, Hoffa just raises a few too many questions that it doesn't answer and is likely to leave audiences walking away from the film rather confused.

Also, the plot structure is a little unnecessary because the story constantly makes jumps between modern day and flashbacks without ever really settling down for most of the time. The plot structure isn't as bad as in many other films, but it just really does not feel that necessary and doesn't prove to have much of a beneficial effect on the story.

But even though Hoffa doesn't tell its story the best, thanks to the benefit of Danny DeVito's strong directional effort Hoffa manages to be a fairly good film. Danny DeVito manages to carry Hoffa to the end by establishing its dramatic elements in the story and giving it a great visual style.

Hoffa has a lot of memorable visual elements because as well as benefiting from great scenery and a strong production design, the cinematography is so great that it scored Hoffa an Academy Award nomination for best cinematography which isn't surprising. The cinematography in Hoffa is excellent because it moves smoothly and captures the facial expressions of the characters as well as keeping the scale of the film large well. The colour palette also maintains a certain gritty grey element to it, and that makes the crime theme held stronger by the visual style of the film. The costumes also manage to make everything feel more sophisticated and realistic.

But in the end, Hoffa is all held together by the strength of its immensely talented cast.

Jack Nicholson's lead role as the titular Jimmy Hoffa is a great one. As well as riding the excellent Academy Award nominated makeup to make his face look even more like the real Jimmy Hoffa, he manages to really bring out the anger within the character. Jimmy Hoffa was an aggressive and powerful man, and using his own acting talents Jack Nicholson is able to get deep into his role and pull that out of him. Jack Nicholson is able to sound and act exactly like Jimmy Hoffa and look identical to him as well, and the way he engages with the universe of the film and the various surrounding cast members is excellent. Whatever intensity audiences will pick up on in Hoffa can be attributed the the intimidation and ferocity that Jack Nicholson puts into his performance, and he makes the film a memorable one. The only flaw in Jack Nicholson's performance is that his face really doesn't show many facial expressions underneath all the makeup he wears to look like Jimmy Hoffa. While his physical acting, his tuning of his emotions to his state of thinking and his fierce line delivery all render his performance an effective one, it is weird to say that on top of it all is so much makeup that his facial expressions simply do not tune into his emotions realistically. His face looks constantly like a mix of frustrated and tired, the standard Jack Nicholson face. And despite everything that Jack Nicholson does in the role of Jimmy Hoffa, he still has only a single facial expression throughout the entire feature. This would probably explain how he got nominated for both the Golden Globe for Best Actor and the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. But overall he does a good job.

Danny DeVito's performance in Hoffa is one of his best dramatic roles to date. As the actor's comedic talents are largely boasted as being part of his aggressive nature combined with his rather short stature, he manages to transition both into his role in Hoffa. He has never really looked and been so fierce as a dramatic actor before as he was in Hoffa. He embodies the role of fictional crime figure Robert "Bobby" Ciaro with ease and skill, and he directs himself to a great supporting performance which has him sharing a strong and tense chemistry with Jack Nicholson which benefits the both of them. Danny Devito is a cast member that is essential to the success in Hoffa, and his performance is so effective that it dispels rumours that he cast himself for self-indulgent purposes/.

Kevin Anderson's performance as Robert F. Kennedy is perfect. He completely nails the appearance of the character flawlessly and acts with a strength that shows the endeavour of his skills as an actor. I'm frankly surprised I've never heard of him before, because his performance in Hoffa was spot on. He embodied the look and nature of Robert F. Kennedy with absolute ease and shared a very intense chemistry with Jack Nicholson which made the dramatic effect of Hoffa all too real. Kevin Anderson gives an unforgettable performance in Hoffa and nails the role of Robert F. Kennedy head on.

John C. Reilly and Armande Assante manage to give powerful supporting performances as well and they both contribute their own to the success of Hoffa.

So while it is likely to leave audiences asking questions due to being not the most intelligent and deep look into the life of Jimmy Hoffa, the visual style and acting of Hoffa make it all too memorable.