‘Gotti’ evokes other, better mob movies
In “Gotti,” we hear the title character praise his son for standing his ground in a bar brawl.
“Nevertakeabackward step,” declares John Sr., played ferociously by John Travolta, whose jutting chin and bristling tone suggest the alpha traits that made Gotti a feared crime boss and a towering presence in the life of his oldest son.
Gotti’s advice about backwardstepsshouldhavebeen heeded by director Kevin Connolly (working from a scriptbylemdobbsandleo Rossi, based on John Gotti
Jr.’s self-published memoir).
Connolly, the “Entourage” star-turned-director, opens his movie with John Gotti at the Brooklyn Bridge, addressing the audience, ready to narrate the (edited) story of his life. We then take a backward step, in the form of a flashback, to visit the Gotti household in Queens, then another flashback to look in on Gotti in federal prison.
Afterafewofthesebewildering flashback-within-a-flashback leaps, we’re not really sure where we are — not even with Connolly’s helpful title cards, and flashes of music and fashion designed to give us a general senseoftimeandplace.
Instead confusion reigns, and questions arise: Do hard-boiled mobsters really listen to Duran Duran?
Or,moreurgently—whose funeral are we watching? Bullets fly, bodies pile up, characters come and go in body bags. It’s easy to lose your place in “Gotti,” which haphazardly revisits noteworthy events (one hesitates to say greatest hits) in the life of the so-called Dapper Don.
We see the murder that convinced mob bosses to “open the books” and admit him as a “made man,” the proud day his oldest son followssuit,theawfuldayhis youngest is killed in a traffic accident. We see his famous acquittals (hence the Teflon Don), his convictions and thedayjohnjr.(spencer Rocco Lofranco) visits him in prison to say that he’s had enough of jail, of constant law-enforcement surveillance, of “the life.”
Is John Jr. betraying his father, or finally becoming the stand-your-ground man his father wanted him to be? Thequestiongetslostinthe movie’s confused presentation. “Gotti” is a jumble of ideas and surfaces borrowed from other, better mob movies. It ends up feeling like a kitschy assemblage of other directors’ ideas.