Tragic comedy-of-errors with Brooklyn, New York the central character...

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2007)

Director Sidney Lumet does possibly his very best work here and star Al Pacino is at the top of his game for this fictionalized account of a real-life incident in 1972 Brooklyn wherein a crazed, frantic, yet relatively good-hearted local man attempted to rob a neighborhood bank. The story, based on the botched robbery concocted by John Wojtowicz, makes for one hell of a loose, shaggy, kinetic comic-tragedy, with Frank Pierson's screenplay winning an Oscar and Pacino and Lumet receiving nominations. Chris Sarandon (also Oscar nominated) has a small, heartfelt role as Pacino's suicidal lover, while John Cazale as Pacino's nervous partner and Charles Durning as the first cop on the scene are perhaps equally fine. The film isn't hard-shelled or raw; instead, Lumet brings Brooklyn alive, kicking and screaming, to form the heart of the piece, and the film is equal parts acerbic satire, sad commentary, and acute observation that is at times howlingly funny. ***1/2 from ****