Chicago reset of a Japanese classic

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2017)

The tight ensemble cast works well together including alphabetically such familiar movie names as Bobby Canivale, Anita Gilette, Richard Gere, Richard Jenkins, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Lisa Ann Walter. Its nostalgic portrayal of a Chicago I remember includes an elevated CTA train and station, the Loop, the Chicago River along Wacker Drive and a pricey visually tony section due west in the city whose residents lack the social graces expected of other tonier city neighborhoods. Its characters have the plain spoken no putting on sophisticated airs characteristic of its region of the midwest. Their day to day problems are real as are their attempts to over come the seeming mundaneness of their life in which physical comforts seem easier to grasp than sophisticated city life pleasures. This aspect lends a depth and trueness to this glorious remake other might see as a letdown from the Japanese original films in a big city culture in which plain folks see things differently.