Am I Talking to Me?

The Alto Knights is everything you would expect from the teaming of respected veteran director Barry Levinson, the writer of classics like Goodfellas and Casino (Nicholas Pileggi) and screen icon Robert De Niro, a beautifully shot and supremely well acted gangster movie with a script that brings the characters to life via razor sharp dialogue. It is precisely that and absolutely nothing more, meaning your milage with it will depend on how much you enjoy watching snazzily dressed, older Italian-Americans sitting around clubs and mansions while the sword of Damocles hangs over their head.

That isn't to say the film doesn't have a stab at trying to forge its own identity, the USP being that De Nero plays both lead roles. This isn't a "Legend" situation where the characters are brothers, he plays real life mafia friends turned rivals Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Costello is more recognisably De Nero, the suave and composed man about town with only minor changes to the actors appearance. To portray Genovese he dons some fairly significant prosthetics and has a ball imbuing the short tempered motormouth with nervous energy and a simmering violence that is barely contained even in his most peaceful moments. Old Bob is, of course, one of the all time greats but can definitely be guilty of mailing it in on occasion. None of that here though, whether its the challenge of playing two characters or the quality of his collaborators, he is giving his all in every scene and reminding everyone why he is cinema's greatest screen gangster. The two performance really are distinct and the scenes when both characters sit down together work seamlessly.

The film begins with a bungled attempt on Costello's life that sends the "boss of bosses" to the hospital and leaves him trying to figure a way out the game he is no longer interested in playing. We then get some quick narration covering his and Genovese's rise up the ranks before the story starts in earnest with the return of Vito from a six year hiatus in Italy to avoid a murder charge. He wants his number one status reinstated but everyone likes the way Costello has been running things so he has to settle for a smaller piece of the pie. For his part, Castello has come to enjoy the trappings of being viewed as a legitimate businessmen and now spends more time out at his country pile than in the city. He opts for a "what do you want me to do?" approach to his problematic friend, giving him a neighbourhood to run and trying to have as little to do with him as possible. Vito is too paranoid, ambitious and simply violent for this to work though and as he ignores Frank's warnings about dealing drugs, offs people who annoy him and gets involved in a very public feud with his equally confrontational wife (an excellent Kathrine Narducci) tensions start to rise.

Given the time period and end of an era theme, the film The Alto Knights will draw most comparison to is Martin Scorsese's epic bum number "The Irishman". This doesn't come close to matching the epic feel of that multi Academy Award nominee but at a full film's length shorter it is certainly more accessible. It is also, arguably, more consistently entertaining and certainly funnier. It is a film that shines in the lighter moments, with the incidental dialogue between characters more engrossing than the story itself. Vito Genovese may be a man of frightening violence but its impossible not to be amused as he jabbers on about bungled assassination attempts, gets his nose put out of joint by the mere proximity of his wife's ex-husband or goes on apoplectic rants at the idea of Mormons digging up a golden book. Making the mob world's inhabitants so much fun to spend time with makes the moments of violence feel more shocking.

There are a couple of distractions. Firstly, considering he is a real person who sat atop the criminal underworld for decades, the film is very kind to Frank Castello, portraying him as a pragmatic businessman who really just wants everything to run nice and quietly and doesn't seem to tend towards violence at all. Perhaps he really was like that by the time we see him but watching a real life gangster played as a dutiful, dog loving husband is a little strange. Still, he is the narrator and no one is the villain of their own story. Secondly, there is no getting away from the fact everybody is old. The films picks up when the De Nero characters are already in their fifties rather than subject us to digital de ageing but it is obvious the actor is a fair bit older and the whole thing being built around an ageing star who, however good he is, has danced this dance any time before, throws extra light on the fact there isn't really anything new here.

So The Alto Knights never threatens to escape the shadow of its illustrious forbears but it's an entertaining addition to the genre. Who knows how many more chances we'll get to see either top tier De Niro or classic gangster films with this level of polish.

7 wise out of 10 guys.

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