Such a great movie

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2006)

And yet the ending felt like a copout, an anticlimactic way for the filmmakers to get out of coming up with something better. This movie deserved a great ending, and it got a quick job instead. But maybe that's as it should be. Maybe there was no better way to end this incredible movie. It's a true story, so obviously the movie had to end a certain way. However, considering the talent involved, you'd expect something more.
But however much I didn't like the ending was a quarter of how much I liked the rest of the movie. Maybe this isn't how the mob actually works, but the way Martin Scorcese films it seems about as realistic as a movie could get. The narrator takes us into the inner workings of the mob, explaining how everything is done and what everyone's job is. Of course, that would mean nothing without good characters, and the main character, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), is a great one. Not a great person, mind you; he's wanted to be in the mob all his life and the movie chronicles all sorts of nasty things he and his colleagues do to other people. But the character is great, partially because Liotta is so magnetizing. One of my friends thinks Liotta is the worst in the movie, but I don't think so. We see everything from his perspective, so we actually don't see a whole lot of him. But when we do, the movie is on.
Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro give good performances as Hill's best friends, and Pesci deserved his Oscar for being a hothead that causes the mob a lot of trouble. But I really think Liotta takes the best performance in the movie and his was definitely an underrated one. Lorraine Bracco is also effective and versatile as Hill's wife. The two of them are more than convincing from beginning to end and the movie would not be the same without them.
Martin Scorcese has made a brilliant movie, never boring, always alive. He's obviously a master director, but that darn endingÂ…maybe the next time I see the movie the ending won't bug me so much. Maybe I'm overreacting. I certainly wouldn't want my qualms about the resolution to keep anyone from seeing such an incredible film.