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Tuesday, 15 August 2006 |
 
These people gave Hell's Kitchen its name
It is a real pleasure when a movie comes along with this good a cast, which also works this well. One of the great overlooked Gangster films of 1990, State of Grace lacks the polish of the much better known Goodfellas which overshadowed it as well as the even better Miller's Crossing the same year. In this case, lack of polish is a good thing.
Set in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen in the late 1980s, State of Grace mainly revolves around Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) a Hell’s Kitchen native who has returned to his home neighborhood after an absence of several years. One of his first acts is to venture into a drug deal which goes sour and ends with him killing two people. He moves on to finding his childhood friend Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) who’s brother Frankie (Ed Harris) is now the boss of the small, local Irish gang, and who’s sister Kathleen (Robin Wright Penn) was his first love. The entire cast is top notch and also includes an early appearance by the always outstanding John C. Reilly (Chicago, The Good Girl) as family friend Stevie.
As Terry works his way back into the lives of his childhood friends, he is only slightly intimidated by the apparent insanity of Jackie, who believes he has found a fail safe, if nauseating solution to disposing of guns after their use, and likes to run the “100 yard dash” through burning buildings he is destroying to ward off the invading Yuppies. British actor Gary Oldman is absolutely perfect as the greasy, psychotic Jackie who is played to an outrageous extreme only Oldman could achieve without seeming comical. His complete lack of control is effectively contrasted by Penn’s typically understated portrayal of Terry as a level headed but determined individual intent on becoming entrenched in the violence of his childhood friends.
State of Grace is not the story of a group of clean, smart criminals like many other gangster films. This is a group of thugs who are at the bottom rung of the underworld ladder, trying to convince themselves they are more than they are. Frankie is the only one with any apparent degree of class, other than Kathleen, who can’t move far enough Uptown trying to get away from her family. In reality, Frankie is only dressed better than the rest of the gang, and jumps at every order of the ruling Italian boss, regardless of how impossible that order may seem.
A bit of warning, this is a violent film, though it is not the type of gratuitous violence some others may resort to. Instead, it has a feeling of complete lack of restraint or morals. The characters are born into violence. They know nothing else. Many of them are genuinely surprised when a friend is killed over an unpaid debt or an unapproved murder. What makes these incidents more alarming is who carries out the orders. Undercutting all of that is Kathleen, torn between her commitment to her family and her desire to get away from them. The final scene, in particular, is a stunning montage of fluid beauty and graphic violence blended together to create a remarkable impact.
Starring: Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright, John Turturro, John C. Reilly
Director: Phil Joanou
Written by: Dennis McIntyre
Cinematographer: Jordan Cronenweth
Studio: Orion Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 134 mins
Release: 1990
Reviewer: John Rice
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