An Over-Hyped Piece of Pretentiousness Throughout

Rating: 1/10 (16 October 2008)

The whole point of a "story" - whatever the medium used to tell it - is that it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Anyone who tampers with that simple principle is just asking for trouble.
As soon as I saw the opening of this film on television I thought, "oh, oh, here we go again, pretentiousness at its worst". In other words, the film starts off at Point A-10, shifts forwards to something like K-2 and then back again to B-3 .....and so on and on it goes. I stuck with this film from before midnight through to a 03.A.M. showing, and in the end (absolutely tired out) I was furious with myself for having stayed up to watch it. By near to the end I had become totally confused at what the hell was going on, what the purpose of everything was, and then the viewer is presented with that completely useless and senseless end to the film.
Besides which, I can't say that I am a fan of Robert DeNiro's acting. I find the man super-self-important in anything and everything he does - a complete turn-off so far as I am concerned.
All of this is a pity since had the director decided to behave maturely and present a much more comprehensible story in a conventional and narrative and chronological manner - such as the Godfather films - he could have hit a goldmine with the story of the nascent Jewish gangsters who grew up and emerged from the Lower East Side east European immigrant communities of early twentieth century New York.
Instead, he completely blew his chances. As to how anyone can describe this film as a "masterpiece" or even put it above the Godfather films in cinematic worth- please, do educate yourselves about the modern cinema and what narratives are all about!