Epic drama a throwback to pre-blockbuster cinema
When Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) was young, he thought ‘‘house painters’’ painted houses. ‘‘I was one of a thousand working stiffs, until I wasn’t no more,’’ he recalls from his nursing home, the frame-tale setting for Martin Scorsese’s magnificent mafioso magnum opus The Irishman.
Clocking in at a potentially bum-numbing 209 minutes, it’s a movie that feels like a Netflix binge-watch, although, such is its cinematic grandeur and magnificence, it deserves to be seen on the hallowed ground of a movie theatre near you.
Based on Charles Brandt’s 2004 book I Hear You Paint Houses, Scorsese’s 26th feature follows Frank, from his early days delivering carcasses, through his reputation for creating them, to his latter-day regrets.
The frame-tale within the frame-tale is his and pint-sized crime lord Russell Bufalino’s (a temporarily un-retired Joe Pesci) 1975 trip from Philadelphia to Detroit for the wedding of Russell’s cousin and Frank’s lawyer Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano).
The three-day journey, punctuated by cigarette breaks (for their wives) and ‘‘business’’ breaks, proved to be pivotal in Frank’s life.
It was Bill, after getting Frank out of a tight spot, who introduced him to Russell.
While quickly realising that Russell was no ‘‘truck mechanic from Canada Dry’’, he had no idea that all of Philly’s roads led directly to him.
Russell was never directly connected to anything, but he was the man you went to when money needed disappearing, judges or juries needed bribing, or business rivals needed taking care of.
And when an error of judgment puts Frank in the sights of the King of Philadelphia Angelo Bruno, it’s Russell who bails him out – at a price.
A new, frontline role sees Frank come into the orbit of Teamsters Union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).
A charismatic figure, the sundae-loving, punctualityobsessed Hoffa takes a shine to Frank and his family, promoting him to the head of his own union chapter.
However, Hoffa’s feuds are many (including with the then
ruling Kennedy family), and his enemies are increasing by the day, prompting Frank to face increasingly divided loyalties, as Russell and company urge him to rein in Hoffa’s grandstanding ways.
Fans of Scorsese’s previous gangster epics, Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino, will lap up the sights, sounds, temptinglooking dishes, salty language and crazy nicknames that infuse The Irishman.
The initial double-flashback narrative takes a while to get used to, but Steven Zaillian’s (American Gangster, Gangs of New York) script is peppered with shocks, filled with memorable moments and features some fabulous dialogue.
‘‘Charge a gun, with a knife you run,’’ explains Hoffa, while also reminding his stepson that you should never put a fish in your car and that everyone in the Mafia seems to be called Tony.
If De Niro, delivering his best performance in more than a decade, is the heart and soul of The Irishman, then Pacino is the undoubted scene-stealer.
His Hoffa is a compelling presence, an unashamed pain in the ass and a hoot.
And we finally get to see the pair truly spark after the promise of 1995’s Heat and the desperate disappointment of 2008’s Righteous Kill.
Naturally, Scorsese has also managed to corral an amazing supporting cast, that not only includes the welcome return of the creepily charismatic Pesci, but also Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham and Jesse Plemons.
Three others behind the scenes are also key to the success of The Irishman. Scorsese’s longtime editing collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker provides another masterclass in how to create tension and perfect pacing, Robbie Robertson curates a fabulous soundtrack of classic period cuts and Industrial Light and Magic has somehow managed to make ‘‘de-ageing’’ look less ‘‘uncanny valley’’ and more uncanny likenesses.
It perhaps falls short of being a classic and it’s not to everyone’s taste (there are some unhappy at its version of the events relating to Hoffa), but there’s no doubting that The Irishman feels like a welcome throwback to pre-blockbuster event cinema of the 1970s, when the focus was on compelling characters and stories, rather than explosions and superheroes.
The Irishman is streaming on Netflix.