State of Grace | Sean Penn, Ed Harris

State of Grace | Sean Penn, Ed Harris | Underrated

DVDs:

State of Grace

	State of Grace Sean Penn, Ed Harris MGM (Video & DVD), 2002 average customer review:based on 64 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

New York City s Hell s Kitchen is a pressure cooker of pent-up anger and it s about to explode! Sean Penn Ed Harris Gary Oldman Robin Wright John Turturro and John C. Reilly deliver exceptional performances (The Hollywood Reporter) in this finely drawn tale of betrayal redemption and guilt (Los Angeles) that ll put you on the edge of your seat (Newsweek)! Terry Noonan (Penn) returns to his old neighborhood with a score to settle. He s now an undercover cop dead-set on taking down an Irish mob family headed by Frankie Flannery (Harris) and his hot-headed brother Jackie (Oldman). But when Noonan infiltrates the family his old feelings for the Flannerys sister (Wright) further heighten the stakes as he enters a violent showdown with them duringSystem Requirements: Running Time 134 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616881434 Manufacturer No: 1004036

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Too often overlooked

I saw this film a good six years ago and the gritty, ugly, and tortured atmosphere has never left my mind; Gary Oldman's perfomance as Jackie Noonan, Irish mob psychopath, transcends a lot of what he has done since.
Who can forget when he innocently pulls out a severed finger from his icebox, laughing like a child, and shows it to his shocked and horrified brother, Terry? (Sean Penn). Or the beautifully stereotypical ending set on St. Patrick's Day?

This story of a quickly fading Irish mob family is one of psychopathic codependence, betrayal, and redemption through vengeance. Ed Harris is absolutely despicable, the type of character you want to reach into the screen and strangle, as the treacherous and self-interested head of the family, Frankie Noonan. Jackie's murder at his hands (as an appeasement to the more powerful local mob) is like watching a demented but innocent toddler go to his death at the hands of his parent.

Momentarily Burgess Meredith, as a broke old Irish apartment holder named Finnn, sorta reprises his role as Mick in a way (no pun intended); he screams at Terry (Sean Penn) in much the same way way he went roids on Sylvester Stallone. Only Terry's not dumb.

Terry takes care of business in the end, ditching his role as undercover cop and using street justice to avenge Jackie's death. This is the worst St. Patrick's Day you've ever seen; not one person is without a firearm in hand, beer, and fashionably worn leather jacket. A great mood piece.

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Underrated

In the gangster genre, this flick more than holds its own. As far as Irish gangster movies go, this is the best one I've seen - not that there are a whole lot of Irish gangster flicks. Better than "Departed". See it!

A Mobster's Homecoming

At the outset, I will concede that I've never been really big on mob movies. They're OK I guess, but they've never been at the top of my list of favorite genres. That said, this is one of my favorite mob movies of the limited number of mob films I've seen in my life.

Sean Penn portrays a Boston police officer [Terry] who is called back to his hometown of New York City to assist with an NYPD Special Investigations Unit. More specifically, he is asked to go undercover in the Irish quadrant of the city, known as the Hell's Kitchen.

He is given the task of spying on his old friends of the Flannery clan. Ed Harris plays Frankie Flannery, the head of an Irish mob outfit in the Kitchen. Gary Oldman plays Jackie Flannery, Frankie's impulsive, violence-prone loose cannon of a brother.

Robin Wright Penn portrays Kate, the sister of the Flannery brothers. She is most well known for being Sean Penn's wife (although I'm unsure whether they were married yet when this film was made) and for starring in The Princess Bride (Special Edition). Kate has always done her best to escape the life of being the sister to criminals, but feels that with Terry's return she is being sucked back into the affairs of the Kitchen.

All through the storyline, there are hints that the Irish mob used to be far more powerful & autonomous than it is these days. Also, the Hell's Kitchen was much more "pure" Irish, but over time the percentage of Irishmen in the Kitchen has declined, and the Irish mob's power has eroded along with this decline. So much as changed, in fact, that Flannery's outfit these days is the mob world's equivalent of a "subcontractor" to an Italian mob outfit. This, of course, sparks all sorts of resentment and minor turf battles that have the propensity of churning out tragic outcomes.

As a sidenote, in this story Ed Harris & Gary Oldman play brothers. They would both go on to individually portray the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Oldman plays the musician in Immortal Beloved while Harris plays Beethoven in the recent Copying Beethoven. That both actors can play in a mob movie and turn around & play the same historical figure (very well on both accounts, I may add!) is a testimony to the acting prowess of both.

The present film is directed by Philip Jounou, who also directed U2's film U2 - Rattle and Hum. John Turtorro frequently shows up in mob movies, and in this one he is a cop instead of a mobster. One can't question the competency of the cast overall as it is top-notch. If you like mob movies at all, or if you have a single drop of Irish blood in your veins, then I would highly recommend this film. If neither of the above applies to you, I still this film would be worth a viewing.

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Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery!

I'm not going to give a synopsis of the movie, but I will talk about how classic Gary Oldman is in this movie as the character of Jackie Flannery, the firecracker, semi-insane younger brother of the head of the Irish Mob in Hell's Kitchen New York. He just has so much personality that you HAVE to love him! (Not to mention, ladies, he is nice to look at). If you have seen Gary in "The Professional", I could almost say that Jackie Flannery and Norman Stansfield could be cousins or related in some way (even though they are different types of crazy).

Sean Penn is the main main character in this and he is always good in everything he's in. But as far as mob movies go, it's not the best. See it for Gary Oldman's performance!

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