A review of the Irishman.

It would perhaps be advisable to watch a film at least twice before trying to review it, but, for my first ever film review, and first ever blog post for that matter, I write on the back of only a single viewing of Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’, which was released on the 27th November in Britain, via Netflix. While it may thus seem as if I am not approaching my debut blogging piece with appropriate enthusiasm and effort, I’d hope to be excused on the grounds that this particular film is three and a half hours long, and thus, does not lend itself easily to a second viewing. Here then I arrive at my first criticism of this film - its running time. I believe the film to be too long. I must say, though, that I appreciate the director’s obvious effort to capture the film’s source material - Charles Brandt’s 2004 book, ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ - in its entirety, which partly excuses the length of the film. Such sensitivity with source material seems hard to come by in modern cinema, and for this, I commend Scorsese. However, I must say that I find the final act of the film, when the focus shifts to Frank Sheehan in his older years, overly drawn-out, which, I believe, detracts from the film’s overall impact. This is where the significance of TriBeCa’s involvement with the production of the film can be seen, I believe - Scorsese seems to have been given the license by the De Niro founded production company to make this film as long as he would like, a luxury I imagine he hasn't been afforded in the past with different films, under different producers. Scorsese’s new found freedom in this regard works to detract from the film’s overall impact, I believe, as I have said; perhaps he needed that critical outside voice in the production process of ‘The Irishman’ to tell him that this film just goes on for too long - and he didn’t have it. 

My second major criticism of this film is rooted in the “Youthification” technology that was put to use in this picture, primarily to ‘de-age’ Robert De Niro for his scenes set in the past. I think Guardian journalist Benjamin Lee hit the nail on the head in his suggestion that the application of de-ageing technology in this film has an eerie likeness to the animated classic ‘The Polar Express’ - this peculiarity is most evident in youthified De Niro’s glassily vacant cartoon eyes, but also in the incongruity between the artificially youthful faces of the actors, and their clearly aged gaits. I found the implementation of this technology perhaps a little distracting and obtrusive in some of the scenes in which it was applied, and it comes as little surprise to me that the youthification ‘practice... has yet to be perfected’, as Lee says.

However, it is much to ‘The Irishman's’ credit that the use of this rather revolutionary, cutting-edge, instayouth tech is largely an undertone in the grander picture of spectacular cinematography, an excellent soundtrack, and multiple legendary performances, from that group of legendary actors. And if you hadn’t already noticed, I am now delighted to move into sharing with you all that I found so exceptionally positive about this film. What I must say first is that any discussion about this film’s plus points MUST begin with acknowledging the bona fide legend of entertainment, Ray Romano, who starred in this film (stole the show I would say) - any picture that can name Ray in its cast is an exceptional one in my opinion. I suppose it’s also worth mentioning that a few of Ray’s co-stars in ‘The Irishman’ gave performances of note too - De Niro re-found his element in role as Sheehan, and I particularly enjoyed his running, muttered narration; similarly, Al Pacino was captivating as infamous union-man Jimmy Hoffa - I found myself enthralled and amused in equal measure by his bizarre accent, and frantic mannerisms. It would be easy for me to forget about Joe Pesci here, but his understated performance is equally as deserving of credit as those of the aforementioned duo - he contrived to make the rather muted Russell Buffalino an inexplicably sinister character.

Now, I think it’s important for me to mention that, and I really don’t know why I didn't mention this at the start of my review, I had only ever seen two Scorsese films before I watched this, the Irishman, and so my knowledge of his quirks and idiosyncrasies is extremely limited, especially when it comes to his ‘gangster’ films - so, I ask you to bear this in mind when I now praise what I deemed to be the unusual quirks and idiosyncrasies of the movie in question. Please excuse me if I am late to the party in this regard, but I was rather enchanted by the numerous Wes Anderson-like tropes that appeared in the ‘The Irishman’. Scorsese’s use of captions, for example, when introducing us to new characters, to detail how those characters would eventually meet their come-uppance, was a motif I found particularly entertaining in its morbidity. Such creativeness in black comedy would be right at home, I believe, in something like Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ - and I like this. Dead-pan humour featured frequently in ‘The Irishman’ too, and I greatly enjoyed this too - the scene where Jimmy Hoffa attempts to pacify Frank Sheehan after angrily berating him ‘by mistake’ particularly stands out to me in this capacity. 

I have already given a nod to ‘The Irishman’s’ cinematography and score, but I am wary of underappreciating the outstanding job Director of Photography Rodrigo Prieto did in creating a pastiche of mid-to-late 20th Century America, and so, I deem it necessary to turn a kind eye on this part of the film once more. It is difficult for me to pick out any particular marquee moments of cinematography in ‘The Irishman’, such is the sustained quality of the picture in this film, but I do remember the the visual of Chicago, underlined by the film’s excellent score, when Frank Sheehan first travels to the city to meet Jimmy Hoffa. This singular combination of visual and audio was arresting, perfectly epitomising all that I found so noteworthy about Prieto’s carefully crafted cinematography in this film. No conversation about 'The Irishman's' aesthetic appeal, though, would be complete without mentioning the scene of Frank Sheehan’s testimonial dinner, which I believe is a triumph of period set creation. The attention to detail demonstrated in this particular scene, not only in the set, but also in the costumes and make-up, is remarkable. Such moments of astonishing cinema in ‘The Irishman’ conspire to capture the imagination, especially when combined with the film’s soundtrack - this cannot be understated, particularly given the film’s length, which provides a real test to one’s attention span.

And just like that, I have arrived at the end of my review. All that’s left for me to do is to bestow upon ‘The Irishman’ a great honour - the inaugural Jude Review Score (that is, a score out of 10). Before I do so, let’s remind ourselves of that which I found positive and negative about this film. The film’s main stumbling block, in my eyes, is its length; the final act is a bit of a slog, and I see this as having a weakening effect on the film’s overall impact. Additionally, I believe the implementation of ‘anti-aging’ technology in this film is rather underwhelming, failing to live up to the hype, I believe, built up around it in the film’s advertising campaign (perhaps this hype was impossible to live up to!) Once my Dad had mentioned that youthified DeNiro looked like a character from the Polar Express, I couldn’t get this out of my head, and I thus found myself distracted by the anti-aging technology in most scenes it was used. Beyond these negatives though, I have nothing but praise for ‘The Irishman’. It could even be argued that the drawn out final act of the film has crucial symbolic value, in vividly demonstrating to the audience the consequences to be expected after living a life of lawlessness - consequences that fall crushingly upon Sheehan in his bleak final years. Perhaps, then, I was wrong to identify the length of the film’s final act as a negative. This leaves me, therefore, with considerably fewer negative points to wield against Scorsese’s film: accounting for this, and for all of the other positives I picked out in this movie - the cinematography and soundtrack; the Wes Anderson-like idiosyncrasies and the magnificent quality of acting on show from that legendary coterie of actors - my only option is to give ‘The Irishman’ a Jude Review Score of 9/10.

Thank you for reading my first ever blog post - I hope you enjoyed it! 

Please feel free to comment your thoughts on The Irishman, and on my review (please be nice!)

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