Review: The Many Saints Of Newark

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

While "The Many Saints of Newark" may not be on the level of "The Sopranos," the groundbreaking HBO series for which it acts as a sort of prologue, it is a mostly engaging story set in the 1960s that focuses - but only occasionally - on a young Tony Soprano (played by Michael Gandolfini, James's son) and his youthful foibles, and how they might have led to him becoming the fearsome New Jersey mobster who we know.

However, the story of "Many Saints" is more about the person whose name gives the film part of its title. Dickie Moltisanti - whose name in Italian means "many saints" - is the father of Christopher (Michael Imperioli), who narrates the film from a graveyard, and cousin-by-marriage of Tony. In the film, he comes to act as a guiding influence on Tony, although much less than you might expect based on the trailer.

Dickie is a bad guy who tries to convince himself that he's a good one, mostly because he believes that he looks out for Tony and, in his free time, coaches a blind baseball team. His father, Hollywood Moltisanti (Ray Liotta) has just arrived back from Italy with a new bride, Giuseppina (Michela De Rossi), with whom Dickie becomes close after he notices that his father slaps her around. Eventually, something more than friendship blooms.

Meanwhile, tensions are flaring all around. Junior Soprano (Corey Stoll captures the character in all of his snakiness) begins to sour on Dickie after the latter laughs at the former during an embarrassing moment, while on the other side of Newark buildings are being burned and stores looted during the Newark riots of 1967, caused by several cops who brutally beat a Black cab driver. 

During all this, Dickie's work relationship with a Black crime affiliate named Harold (Leslie Odom Jr.) begins to fray after the two had been involved in a lucrative partnership involving the numbers game. But Harold wants to break out on his own, rather than continually relying on Dickie as a benefactor, and violence soon breaks out between the mob and Newark's Black gangsters.

Throughout all of this, new actors pop up as favorite old characters - Samson Moeakiola and Billy Magnussen have the look and mannerisms down for Big Pussy and Paulie Walnuts, respectively, while John Magaro's portrayal of Silvio Dante is, while impressive in its mimicry, perhaps a little too much of an impersonation. Vera Farmiga certainly scores as Livia Soprano, Tony's beleaguered mother, and Stoll is scary as Uncle Junior.

Among the new characters, Harold is certainly an interesting figure, although somewhat of a cypher and mostly missing during the film's second half. While Liotta's portrayal of Hollywood is fine, his work as Hollywood's brother in prison, whom Dickie visits out of a sense of duty, is more impressive. A jazz aficionado, his character comes to act as somewhat of an adviser for Dickie, who is being pulled in different directions by different people.

But, not surprisingly, the most interesting facet of the film is the story of young Tony, who is portrayed by Gandolfini as a sweet, luggish kid who might have become a decent person had he not grown up around his family, and those in The Family. While Gandolfini has his father's mannerisms down pretty well, he also displays his vulnerability. There are moments here when the character vacillates between being the thug Tony would become and an entirely different person whom he might have been if he'd been exposed to better mentors.

There's also an interesting, albeit brief, subplot in which Tony tries to get his depressive mother to consider taking some pills that her doctor prescribed for sleep, signaling Tony's own interest in psychiatry that would come years later during David Chase's show. There's a particularly moving sequence during which Tony attempts to contact Dickie, who has decided to stay out of his nephew's life to prevent him from getting into crime, only to be stuck outside alone in the snow around Christmas.

So, no, "The Many Saints of Newark" doesn't reach the heights of the incredible TV show, which heralded in the Golden Age of Television, and influenced so many great shows that came after it. "The Sopranos" in turn was influenced by Scorsese's mob movies, especially "Goodfellas," so it's interesting to see this story come full circle with Liotta in two roles and, of course, Lorraine Bracco's fantastic work on the show. While it may not be on par with the show's best episodes, it's still an entertaining mob picture with a great supporting cast and some interesting links drawn between this film and the show that preceded it. Fans of the program will likely get a kick out of it.