Full of itself

Rating: 5/10 (22 August 1999)

Brian De Palma indulges in his usual forced artiness. He wants to show us Al Capone at the opera; so he casts around for the least obvious camera angle and places us within side-spittle-reach of the lead tenor, giving us a shot of Capone through his lips (although our ears tell us that the tenor is across the hall). Yes, very pretty. Very clever. Bah. Then there's a climactic confrontation at a rail station; so De Palma decides to present every excruciating second of it in treacle-speed slow motion, half of the time hanging from the ceiling. Bah.
Note to De Palma: it IS possible to be considered a great director, if that's what you're worried about, without all this gimmickry. Really, it is!
I give up. I can't see the point of any of it. I guess it's a film for people who like to feel tough. The gangsters are tough; the people who fight the gangsters are tough; Robert De Niro gets to do his tough schtick, so that we may all feel tough. Bah.