Everything there but something's missing...

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2007)

My expectations were high for this movie, not only as it related to a favourite genre, the modern gangster film, but also of course the heavyweight talent bringing it to the screen, Scott, Crowe, Washington et.al. For me it didn't quite exceed the sum of its parts but that said there's much to commend it. The story gets back to front with pace and the scene setting is fine, evoking the required mix of "French Connection" (namechecked en route), "Shaft", "The Godfather" and even more recent films like "Casino", "LA Confidential" and "The Untouchables". The film however brings little that is new to the party in terms of plotting which is perhaps the main drawback here, we have sort of seen it all before, from the fable of the underdog protégé gangster rising spectacularly through the ranks, to the Mafia-style placement of family at the centre of Mr Big's (Washington's Frank Lucas) universe, to the taking of a trophy wife, to the ritual violence meted out to rivals and subordinates, plus of course the good versus bad cops and robbers routine as unsullied by vice, Crowe plays off against Washington's sinister well oiled criminal machine. The evocation of late 60's New Jersey and New York is well achieved, with language and fashions to match (a negative mark tho' for the too-obvious musical soundtrack motifs, great as they are, slightly more obscure selections from Bobby Womack, Staple Singers and Sam and Dave would have better grounded the movie in its chosen era), but I found the acting just shy of top-notch, certainly not Oscar-worthy. The twin leads, Crowe and Washington aren't stretched and to me, don't stretch themselves enough in their parts, plus it's fair to say they're given few memorable lines to deliver too. I would also have preferred the Crowe character to be more blemish-free to point up the contrast with Washington's don, (why does every divorce defendant in a Hollywood flick end up in a gratuitous sex-scene with their glamorous female attorney?). The Crowe and Washington characters are held back until the conclusion when they actually share a scene, but again fireworks fail to fly and one almost wishes the actors could have turned back the clocks to when they were less knowing about their craft (c.f. Crowe in "LA Confidential", Washington in "Philadelphia") and brought more attack to their parts. I'm not sure "American Gangster" adds much more than a semi-colon, never mind a postscript to the genre and the film does drag on about 20 minutes too long but there's enough grits and style to get by on here.