‘Many Saints of Newark’ works hard to reach ‘Sopranos’ bar
On the Scorsese-Coppola scale, “The Many Saints of Newark,” the Sopranos “origin” film from “Sopranos” creator, producer and writer David Chase and “Sopranos” director Alan Taylor, is a decent effort in spite of a loosely knit narrative. It’s the gangster “Wonder Years.” The title is a play on the name of one of the protagonists, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), Tony Soprano’s youthful mentor. In Italian, Moltisanti means “many saints.”
The film begins in late 1960s Newark, where race riots rocked the city in the summer of 1967. Belmont Avenue burned. The National Guard was deployed, shooting several looters. Against this fiery backdrop and the war in Vietnam, “Johnny Boy” Soprano (Frank Grillo), husband of the unstable Livia (Vera Farmiga) and father of Tony (Michael Gandolfini), is convicted and sent to Rahway State Prison.
Dickie and his cohorts run the lucrative numbers racket in Newark as well as other undertakings. Harold McBrayer (Leslie Odom Jr.) manages Black neighborhoods in the Central Ward for Dickie. The two men have a surprisingly amicable relationship, given the times and their backgrounds.
The film’s narrator is Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), who will be killed by his cousin Tony (James Gandolfini) in the future. I’m not sure I wrapped my head around the sound reason for doing this. It’s goofier even than the icecream store ending of “The Sopranos.”
The action begins when aging gangster “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti (Ray Liotta) returns from a trip to Italy with Sophia Loren-lookalike new wife Giuseppina (Michela De Rossi), who is instantly attracted to her husband’s son Dickie and later and just as scandalously to his colleague Harold. We will also meet “Sopranos” regulars Livio Dante (a very amusing John Magaro of “First Cow”), Paulie Walnuts (Billy Magnussen), Junior Soprano (Corey Stoll, channeling Dominic Chianese) and a passing teenage Carmela (Lauren DiMario).
One of the film’s problems is that we hear a lot about the strong impression Dickie makes on the young Tony Soprano, whose father is in jail during his formative years. But we don’t see much of that on the screen. Tony does not want to be a part of his relatives’ violent criminal lives. But he also gets in trouble at school for stealing a test and hijacks a Mister Softee truck, assaulting the driver. His school principal confronts his mother about her inappropriate treatment of her son, whom she thinks is stupid, despite his high IQ and “leadership qualities.”
The crimes — patricide, incest, torture — are Shakespearean and mythological in scope. The violence is Scorsesean.
Young Tony sees a bird in a garage, a presentiment of death, we are told. Tony has an Alfred E. Neuman for President poster on his bedroom wall. In the end, Soprano life is just one big Mad Magazine.
(“The Many Saints of Newark” contains extreme violence, sexually suggestive scenes, nudity and profanity; even the kids swear.)