Kind of a shame...

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2005)

"The Godfather" is a good movie that should have been a much better one. It has almost everything it needs: a stellar cast, a story based on a bestseller, great music, lush cinematography, etc. It makes a kind of visual poetry out of many of its scenes. But in the end it lacks a soul. As a movie about the Mafia, it made its characters too lovable, whitewashing the brutality, hypocrisy, stupidity and sleaze of real gangsters. We like the characters too much; we want to be like them, deliver their lines. It leaves out even the few ideas that the book had. In the end it is a story well told, but eventually, a story about nothing (not in the Seinfeld sense, either.).