Epic swansong spoiled by distracting facial effects

Rating: 7/10 (8 December 2019)

A classic Scorsese spectacle that had all the right ingredients, though the cinematic hero worship of the stars drowned out the storyline for me. Putting a 40 year old face on a man with the gait of a 75 year old is just weird, distracting and - I have to say - cringingly funny at times. Pacino's big outbursts are staccato and forced, but you can feel the whole of age-free hollywood cheering him on with tears in their eyes. Out here in the real world, they all just looked a bit odd. The spin-off benefit of the length of the film was that you slowly adjusted to it, but only in the way that you adjust to alien creatures... Storyline, script and atmosphere were expertly compelling, I just couldn't get past the fake faces and eyes.