Review of State of Grace (1990) by Allan C — 19 Apr 2014

This is a film I've always had a soft spot for. It's a fairly standard mob story about Sean Penn returning to his old Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, finding his greasy haired childhood friend, Gary Oldman, the #2 man in the Irish mob and his older brother, Ed Harris, now the mob boss of the Kitchen.

Harris is looking to move up in the world and is starting to align himself with the Italian mob, though Oldman is a wild card who could mess things up. There's also Harris and Oldman's younger sister, Robin Wright, who's doing everything she can to leave the Kitchen and the criminal life behind, but then becomes involved with Penn.

Director Phil Joanou is a director I've loved ever since "Three O'Clock High" and regularly made smart and visually arresting films, this one fitting that bill as well. Jordan Cronenweth provided some amazing photography and paints the Hell's Kitchen setting with rich vivid colors.

Ennio Morricone did the score (one of his last big American films) and the film was the sole effort by playwright Dennis McINtyre, who died shortly after completing the screenplay. I've read that David Rabe did some rewrites on the screenplay, which may account for some of the more more overwritten speechifying moments in the film that take you out of the gritty dialogue that makes up the rest of the film.

There also a good supporting cast that includes John Turturro, Burgess Meredith (in a great one scene performance), R.D. Call (as Harris' very scary henchman), Joe Viterelli as the Italian mob boss and John C.

Reilly loser friend of Oldman and Penn's. Reilly was very memorable in "Casualties of War" but it was this film that really made me think this guy can really act and made me remember the guy.

Watching this film almost 25 years later, it still holds up and it really makes me want to see a new phone from director Phil Joanou. It's not a perfect film, but it's got great atmosphere, some terrific performances (especially by Oldman and Harris), a great Morricone score, and is a visually sticking film.

This is a must see for fans of mob films for fans of Gary Oldman.