Have you ever been to a party and saw an incredible looking cake and you got a piece, and it was just mediocre? I had that happen at a party that had a cake in an incredible shape of the Cat in the Hat. They used fondant to shape it. Problem is...the icing tasted like playdough.
This movie is kind of like that. It looks amazing, and the cast might be one of the best of the year. And while my wife didn’t care for the film, I was never bored. I was watching actors I’ve been watching for 50 years, and I was enjoying myself the whole time.
The story centers around a mob boss having a birthday celebration. His nephew Giovanni (Shiloh Fernandez) is going to make a brief appearance, but he’s more interested in hanging out with his friends and the cute girl he just asked out. His mom (Lorraine Bracco) tells him not to forget to bring the cake, which she has been making for this party each year. This all falls around the 10th anniversary of Gio’s dad’s death, too.
It’s not hard to figure out some of the things that happened to Gio’s dad, and the flashbacks help fill us in on some of the characters. Yet first time director Jimmy Giannopoulous, and co-writers Diomedes Raul Bermudez and lead actor Shiloh Fernandez, sometimes rely on mob movie cliches.
It’s fun watching Gio make various pit stops, upset he has to lug around this cake. We follow him to a restaurant, strip club, and in a cab (where he forgets the cake). It reminded me of the movie Twenty Bucks in 1993. A twenty dollar bill is taken from an ATM, and we watch all the places it goes (that also had an impressive cast: Christopher Lloyd, Gladys Knight, Spalding Gray, William H. Macy, Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Elizabeth Shue, Linda Hunt, and David Schwimmer, a year before Friends would make him a star).
In a flashback, we see Russian bullies beat up Gio. His cousin Leo (Emory Cohen) comes to the rescue (and seems a lot more equipped to go into the family business).
On the trip to the party, the FBI try to shake Gio down for info. Other friends also impart knowledge about his family that he wasn’t aware of (even though some of this was obvious to us). There are some drug dealers creating problems.
My favorite scene has a cabbie (Luis Guzman), who tries to give life advice to a young couple fighting, and who was all prepared to devour the cake that was left behind.
Underrated actor William Ficthner plays Uncle Ricardo, a dirty cop. Fichtner plays evil as well as anyone in the business.
Ewan McGregor plays Father Kelly. He bookends the film and does some narration.
You can’t have Brooklyn mobsters without Paul Sorvino. He’s on a ventilator and doesn’t have a lot to do.
Nick Vallelonga, who I will always love for writing Green Book, has a small part (he also played a mob heavy in Green Book).
Sopranos fans will be happy to see Vincent Pastore.
Trump fans (or enemies) will be happy to see Marla Maples.
Aldis Hodge, who was impressive in One Night in Miami, only has one night (and one scene) in this, but he’s solid.
And the third cast member from Goodfellas in this, is Joe D’Onofrio (A Bronx Tale).
Now, the worst casting was Val Kilmer. My wife was furious that he doesn’t look Italian. We were both furious that...he can’t talk anymore. In real life, his throat cancer cost him his voice. That means in this, we’re hearing him talk with an electric talk box thingy, and since you can’t understand a word he’s saying, they’ve provided subtitles. Now, I kind of understand casting him. It probably cost the studio a mere $100,000, and you’re getting the guy that played Jim Morrison and Doc Holliday. But still, it was distracting and didn’t work. It makes me wonder how or what he’s going to do in the next Top Gun, but I digest (I just ate some cake myself).
There were a few scenes I really liked. One involves a convenient store employee who’s angry about what he’s been dragged into.
A few other scenes involve a lost cell phone, which puts you on the edge of your seat.
So while the movie may not completely work at times, what happens in the last 20 minutes make it all worth following this cake and characters around.
3 stars out of 5.