Review of Romance & Cigarettes (2005) by Todd J — 18 Dec 2007

Romance and Cigarettes: John Turturro directs this domestic drama musical starring James Gandolfini as Nick Murder. It centers on the break of his marriage to Susan Sarandon because of an affair with Kate Winslet.

He works with Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken helps Susan Sarandon get over things. These moments of occasionally gorgeous shots are implanted with moments where the characters sing mainstream pop and rock tunes to express the feeling of the moment.

These segments are highlighted by stagey dance routines done by incidental characters. For example, in the first song and dance piece, James Gandolfini rocks out with some garbage men in the middle of the street.

Unfortunately, the concoction doesn't run all that smoothly or consistently. The music often highlights a mood but never really does anything but provide a moment's respite from a pretty well-written story about a middle-aged guy's last arc.

The end is particularly sad and works more than anything before it had. The film's attempts at over-the-top humor are highly hit or miss. Also, despite being the charismatic genius that he is, I'm a little afraid that Christopher Walken is done playing characters and will forevermore appear in mock-ironic lampoons of his old, stolid characterizations.

That said, he's still one of the funny things about the film. And the thing about the flick is that it really isn't bad, but nothing really ever comes together out of the musical moments, and the attempts at humor throughout don't just fall flat occasionally, in fact, you're forced to generally swallow them multiple times.

And unfortunately, it seems as though James Gandolfini threw everything he knew into Tony Soprano because his performance here drips in that character's inflections, gestures, etc. Being a Sopranos nut, I'm not entirely dissatisfied to see his performance, but his character here could've used, I don't know, a little less mob boss and a little more construction worker (now that I think of it, I never bought it when they'd have Tony dream about being an immigrant or whatever either).

In any case, even if you're a fan of musicals, unless you can get in this flick's mindset as far as the music and humor are concerned, you're going to be left with your arms crossed and fighting off sleep for an hour and 40 minutes.

** out've *****.