Passionate movie making.

Rating: 9/10 (12 July 2003)

How can you not appreciate the amazing effort and passion that went into this film. Scorsese is an artist with a camera. I'm not being biased here because I'm a Newyorker but c'mon, what's with all of these bad ratings? This movie is one of a kind. The set design alone, along with the fantastic costumes should be enough, but The acting by Daniel Day Lewis was just mind boggling. This man became a character and acted with passion. The academy basically stole the Oscar from him. Leo showed us why he is so inconsistent. He was great in Catch Me If You Can. But in GONY he was bland. Nothing to him, bad irish accent, did not fit the role at all, as well as my lovely favorite actress Cameron Diaz. I thought she was miscast as well, but Bill "the butcher" saved the acting aspect in this film.
As far as the story goes, look at it as a documentary. It's a history lesson, and the realism is unmatched. The story does feel a bit rushed, but this movie does not lack heart. I thought it had a lot of it. Altough some actors were miscast, they were not terrible.
I think most people think it's a mindless gory film with no heart. But I disagree. It was a realistic portrait of 19th century NY city. NYC is still very similar today, and if you think the NYPD is not a gang, then you're nuts. We have our rich, our poor, slums that the politicians don't care about. They rob us here too with outrageous ticket prices. *** stars out of 4. You just have to appreciate they good aspects that make the bad aspects meaningless.