A tasty steak, a loaf of Italian bread, a bottle of Canada Dry and ice cream for dessert. These things would make a nice, carbolicious meal, but they’re also the components that bind nearly five decades of mobsters, killing and betrayal in Martin Scorsese’s epic “The Irishman.”
Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, the 3½-hour film follows the reflections of Frank Sheeran (De Niro), an Irish-American World War II veteran based out of Philadelphia who finds work from Russell Bufalino (Pesci). Bufalino, who quietly leads a crime syndicate two hours away in Pittston, forms an unlikely bond with Sheeran, turning the father of four girls into a mob assassin. As the mob has its hands on nearly all parts of the U.S. government, Bufalino assigns Sheeran to protect union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). Bent on power and paranoid about rivals, Hoffa presents ideas that contradict what the mob wants, in a time when great change is sweeping over the country. In the middle is Sheeran, who has to decided who to honor – his longtime mob boss, his new union friend, or his family.
“The Irishman” is based on the Charles Brandt’s book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” Sheeran’s account of being a mob enforcer and his confession to being the one who killed Hoffa. Audiences have been waiting for years for Scorsese and De Niro to adapt the true story, and after several delays it finally made it to the big screen. But since it’s a Netflix movie, the film became part of the streaming service at a fast rate. Being the event movie that it is (nothing Scorsese does is small), watching it at home is a suitable way to enjoy it.
There are two ways the film unfolds — through a short view as an older Sheeran relays his crimes while staying at a convalescent home in the early 1990s and through a long view where Sheeran, Bufalino and their wives are traveling from Pittston to the wedding of Bufalino’s cousin Bill’s daughter. The audience knows that Sheeran has killed Hoffa at the film’s start, but it takes about three hours to get to that point.
In the meantime, viewers are treated to what makes all these men tick and what others outside their mad world think of them. And it’s mostly through what food they eat. Sheeran’s first tough guy is Skinny Razor (Bobby Cannavale), who controls the meat market in Philly and likes a good steak. Bufalino breaks a fine bread with Sheeran as he tells his Irish friend about his Italian rivals. While Hoffa stays away from booze, he enjoys the occasional Canada Dry (something that Bufalino used to transport in his early days). And the Teamsters president is also a sucker for an ice cream sundae, whether it’s sharing one with Sheeran’s daughter Peggy (Lucy Gallina as the younger Peggy and Anna Paquin as the older) or having one made specially for him during his stint in “school” (that’s jail, folks).
The characters and the acting are well-balanced throughout the film, from Pacino’s loud-mouth Hoffa to Pesci’s quiet Bufalino. Pesci’s return from retirement is perhaps what keeps the movie going. When he’s not on the screen, the runtime feels even longer than its 210 minutes. In fact, the movie is not too long; it’s just that Scorsese doesn’t use it well to his advantage. The two views make “The Irishman” a bit confusing as the viewer waits to see where the road trip falls in Sheeran’s timeline of events. In the film’s first two hours, Scorsese expertly frames how Sheeran gains the trust of Bufalino and Hoffa and shows the impact it has on the enforcer. He also allows the viewer to decide if they believe Sheeran was able to get as close to them and that he was capable of following orders and be so cold. However, that feeling breaks apart once the third hour arrives. As for the de-aging effect to keep Scorsese’s star trio in the film for five decades, it makes their faces look very plastic. It’s like you’re waiting for their real faces to appear but you must sit through Pixar animation to see their faces. Casting younger actors would have been better.
“The Irishman” is worth the long wait, and is Scorsese’s most muted gangster movies he has ever made. Seeing Pacino and De Niro tango again may be the major draw, but it’s Pesci’s comeback as Bufalino that makes the film.