“The Irishman”–Movie Review

On the opening day of the 57th New York Film Festival, I attended the World Premiere of Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman”, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

Synopsis

When a mob hitman is tasked with taking out Jimmy Hoffa, can he do the job despite being the man’s close friend?

Story

At this point in his life, the elderly Frank Sheeran (De Niro) must live in a nursing home.  Reminiscing about his remarkable life, this World War II veteran admits that he made a successful career for himself as a hitman for Italian gangsters (despite the fact that Frank himself is Irish).  Following a chance meeting with mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci), Frank is hired by him to do various unsavory jobs.  Although Frank is able to earn a decent living for his family as a truck driver, he certainly doesn’t mind making some extra money on the side.       

After proving himself to be reliable, Russell gives Frank more and bigger jobs with even greater responsibility.  Eventually, Frank is making more money working for Russell than he is in his truck driving job alone, so life is pretty good.  Or so it seems.  Another major turning point in his career occurs when Russell introduces him to the leader of the Teamsters union, Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).  Frank is quite familiar with Hoffa – this union leader is a very famous man throughout the United States.  Hoffa wants to hire Frank because, as he put it, “I heard you paint houses” (code for being a professional hitman). 

Russell loans out Frank to Hoffa, who hires him to do some work, taking care of some folks trying to impede Hoffa’s progress.  Over the course of their working relationship, Frank winds up spending a great deal of time with Hoffa and they become close friends.  Hoffa places a great deal of trust in Frank because he feels it’s been earned.  But as famous and successful as Hoffa is, his gruff manner rubs many people the wrong way and he ends up making enemies.  When Hoffa serves time in prison for committing fraud, he loses his spot as Teamsters leader.  Once he is pardoned, he leaves prison thinking he’ll be able to return to his old job.  The only problem with this is that the mob doesn’t want him to have his old job back.  Since Hoffa refuses to fall in line, Russell must have Frank do a hit on him.  But can Frank murder one of his closest friends?      

Review

Stories like these are so deep in Scorsese’s wheelhouse that you feel from the very first moment that the director is so confident and comfortable with it that you immediately surrender yourself to him.  He then goes on to prove that your trust was well-founded because he is such an expert at telling complex, expansive tales.  If you are a Scorsese fan, you will not be disappointed in “The Irishman”, which is a far better title for a movie than the title of the book on which it is based (“I Hear You Paint Houses”).  Scorsese doesn’t look like he’s slowing down at all; instead, if anything, “The Irishman” reinforces that he’s still at the top of his game.

Where the movie may become a bit of a challenge is when it introduces so many characters that at some point it becomes difficult to keep track of who a few of them are or their relationship to Frank.  That minor quibble aside, at no point does “The Irishman” ever turn into a slog (although at three and a half hours, you’ll be forgiven if you start fidgeting in your seat).  With the suspense, action, violence and yes, humor, the story provides constant forward momentum.  This will long be considered one of Scorsese’s many masterpieces in his extensive oeuvre, and deservedly so.  From the opening scene where the camera winds through Frank’s nursing home while a pop music hit from the 1950’s plays in the background until the last shot of him alone in his wheelchair, you feel like you’ve been taken on a long and winding but deeply rewarding journey.

While the film’s protagonist is De Niro’s character (Frank), it is Pacino who steals the show as Hoffa.  He is so over the top, it seems as though Scorsese gave him free rein to chew up the scenery in every scene.  The humor dispersed throughout the movie was welcome.  One running gag is that whenever a character is introduced, a graphic pops up telling you how and when he met his demise.  Much has been mentioned about the CGI process that was used for the aging or “un-aging” process for certain characters.  Yes, you become aware of it early on, but you wind up getting so involved in the story that you eventually overlook it altogether.          

One note about the screening itself:  Most of the cast was present at the start of the movie; they were introduced by Scorsese who said a few words himself.  He also urged De Niro to say something, but the actor was his usual taciturn self.  Anna Paquin appears in “The Irishman” as one of Frank’s daughters (but she doesn’t have many lines).  When she was introduced, she walked onto the stage and appeared to trip over something in her high heels and in so doing, it looked like she might have twisted her ankle because she immediately started limping thereafter.  After the screening, Scorsese, De Niro et al appeared in the balcony and were greeted with a standing ovation.