SMOOTH CRIMINAL (THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK)

 

David Chase and Alan Taylor were always onto a hiding to nothing when they decided to transfer the world of 'The Sopranos' to the big screen.

For most people aged 40 and above, HBO's Mafia series remains the greatest television drama ever created.

Shows like 'The Wire,' 'Mad Men,' 'Breaking Bad,' 'Game of Thrones' and recently 'Succession' have all mounted strong challenges to swipe that title away from Chase's series.

And while it remains to be seen of 'Succession' can eclipse 'The Sopranos,' none of them have managed to achieve the level of consistency of HBO's Mob drama.

'The Sopranos' was a brilliantly conceived, sharply directed, stunningly acted piece of daring, game changing television.

It showed TV could deliver morally ambivalent, complex drama just as effectively as any movie, play or novel.

At its heart was an extraordinarily skilful lead performance from the late James Gandolfini  that was rich in charm, mischief, brutality, vulnerability, mendacity, street cunning, melancholy and black humour.

Gandolfini wasn't 'The Sopranos'' only strong card.

Edie Falco as his wife Carmela, Jamie Lynn-Sigler and Robert Iler as his kids Meadow and AJ, Lorraine Bracco as his psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Melfi, Michael Imperioli as his mentor's son Christopher Moltisanti and his girlfriend Drea De Matteo's Adriana, Aida Turturro as Tony's sister Janice and Dominic Chianese as Corrado 'Junior' Soprano all turned in memorable performances that veered between comedy and dark drama.

Series regulars like John Ventimiglia as the restaurateur Artie Bucco, Jerry Adler as Tony's trusted adviser Herman 'Hesh' Rabkin, Stephen R Schirripa's Bobby 'Baccala' Baccalieri, Steven Van Zandt, Vincent Pastore and Tony Sirico as his henchmen Silvio Dante, Big Pussy Bonpensiero and Paulie Walnuts were integral to its success.

The stream of character actors who also guested on the show from Joe Pantoliano to Steve Buscemi, David Proval to Frank Vincent, Anabella Sciorra to John Heard and Vince Curatola played a huge part as well.

It would be a crime to overlook the huge contribution that the veteran actress Nancy Marchand made to the show as the extremely sly and cunning Livia Soprano - one of the most monstrous depictions of a mother on the big or small screen.

Chase and his directors made smart soundtrack choices as well including tracks by Nick Lowe, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison and Them and particularly, Alabama 3's 'Woke Up This Morning' for the show's iconic opening titles sequence.

The quality of the writing was such that individual episodes stand out as masterpieces on their own, from the dark revenge tale of 'College' in Season One to the black comedy slapstick of Paulie and Christopher being stuck in the wild in 'The Pine Barrens' episode in Season Three to the iconic final season 'Made in America' with its much discussed fade to black climax.

Trying to recreate all these elements on the big screen was never going to be an easy task and it was made all the more challenging by the untimely death of Gandolfini in Rome in 2013 at the age of 51.

HBO has a poor record too when it comes to turning some of its popular TV franchises into movies 

The 'Sex and the City' and 'Entourage'  movies deservedly received critical brickbats.

However expectations of a 'Sopranos' movie were always going to be high.

Wisely, Taylor and his screenwriters Chase and Lawrence Konner have focused on the formative years of Tony Soprano, casting James Gandolfini's son Michael as the Mobster's teenage self.

However 'The Many Saints of Newark' isn't really an origins story and its main character is not really Tony.

Interestingly, its main focus is on Christopher's father, Alessandro Nivola's Dickie Moltisanti.

Ominously opening in a graveyard, Kramer Morgenthau's camera roams around the tombstones as the dead narrate their life stories until it settles upon Michael Imperioli's Christopher Moltisanti.

Christopher's voiceover introduces us to Dickie and William Ludwig's pre-teen Toby Soprano in 1967 as they turn up to greet Dickie's father, Ray Liotta "Hollywood Dick" Moltisanti and his new, young Italian bride, Michela De Rossi's Giuseppina off a liner.

There is a clear spark of attraction between Dickie and his new stepmother but he goes about his business as a footsoldier in the Di Meo crime family with Tony's father, Jon Bernthal's Johnny, Corey Stoll's Uncle Joon, Joey Diaz's Buddha, John Magaro's younger version of Silvio Dante, Billy Magnussen's Pauly Walnuts and Samson Moeakiola's Pussy Bonpensiero.

Part of that business involves working with Leslie Odom Jr's African American gangster Harold MacBrayer running gambling rackets in Newark's black neighbourhoods.

Harold and Dickie are getting particular grief about the behaviour and poor returns of Mason Bleu's Leon Overall, a young member of the Black Saints gang.

Dickie shames Harold into gunning Leon down in an Army recruitment office where he is hiding by pretending to be interested in being drafted in Vietnam.

However this is the point where Harold starts to resent his relationship with Dickie who his girlfriend Patina Miller's Queen Isola claims has turned him into his "house nigger".

When riots erupt in Newark over the beating of an African American taxi driver by two white police officers, Harold snaps and decides to leave Dickie's crew to forge his own criminal career.

Dickie's father, meanwhile, is starting to row with his new wife and beat her in his home.

This brings back uncomfortable memories for Dickie about his own childhood and the treatment of his mother, so he confronts Hollywood Dick about his assault on Giuseppina.

As they sit in their car in the backyard, Hollywood Dick tries to dismiss Dickie's words of warning that he will not tolerate his father's domestic violence anymore.

The row escalates with Hollywood Dick accusing his son of trying to seduce Giuseppina and soon they are trading blows in the front seat.

Eventually, Giuseppina becomes Dickie's mistress.

However Dickie is also troubled by his actions and he goes to visit Hollywood Dick's twin brother Salvatore Moltisanti who is in jail after killing "a made man".

He confesses to his jazz enthusiast uncle that he wants to make amends for the way his family turned their backs on Salvatore and is told to bring a copy of Miles Davis' 'The Birth of Cool' the next time he visits him.

When Johnny is arrested for a prior felony, Vera Farmiga's Livia Soprano comes to rely upon Dickie to become more of a mentor to Tony - especially when he gets in trouble at school.

There is no mistaking the bond between them, even after Christopher is born and when Johnny gets out of prison.

However Dickie continues to be troubled by the disintegration of his relationship with Harold who starts to muscle in on the Mafia's control of the numbers game in the African American neighborhoods and run his own racket instead.

Also attracted to Giuseppina, the two men are on a bloody collision course that will see Harold and his gang take on the Di Meo family.

In bringing a 'Sopranos' prequel to the big screen, Taylor, Chase and Konner face a number of challenges.

With a running time of just under two hours, there is little time for those surreal flights of fancy that the TV series was known for.

Fans of the show will also be picking over every detail for recognisable traits in the younger versions of beloved characters and for signposts to later developments in the TV series.

On that score, Taylor, Chase and Konner and their cast do very well.

The decision to focus mostly on Dickie, though, is a wise one - filling in the blanks about a character that Tony often spoke of in revered tones in the series.

With the audience's attention mostly fixed on Nivola's character, it takes the pressure off Michael Gandolfini to replicate the great performance of his father.

But even on that score the film succeeds, with the young Gandolfini doing plenty to suggest he could develop into a great character actor like his dad.

While 'The Many Saints of Newark' is clearly one for 'The Sopranos' fans, there's enough going on to pique the interest of those who haven't watched the series and plant the seed that they should probably start devouring its box sets.

Nivola is terrific as Dickie Moltisanti - playing him as a smooth New Jersey criminal on the outside and a troubled figure on the inside.

An actor who has been around for some time, Nivola has been waiting to be given a meaty lead role and he really seizes the opportunity.

If 'The Sopranos' owed a lot to Martin Scorsese's 'Good Fellas,' Nivola's performance roots 'The Many Saints of Newark' very much in 'Mean Streets'.

Like Harvey Keitel's Charlie in Scorsese's classic, Dickie has a deep dose of Catholic guilt about the life he leads and is keen to make amends.

However he still goes about his immoral business.

'Sopranos' fans will get a huge kick out of Stoll's performance as the brittle, vain Uncle Joon, Magaro's version of Silvio Dante, Billy Magnussen's Pauly Walnuts and Samson Moeakiola's Pussy Bonpensiero - all of which riff on their characters' distinctive mannerisms from the TV show.

Michael Gandolfini does a great job recreating the physicality of his father's performance as Tony and the character traits - the slouch of the shoulders, the occasional moments of charm and the violent flashes of temper.

Of the new characters, Odom Jr is magnetic as Harold, bringing a whole new context to 'The Sopranos' saga by injecting racial politics.

Di Rossi is also effective as Giuseppina who plays a dangerous game and suggesting she may not be as innocent as she pretends.

Liotta has a ball in the dual roles of Hollywood Dick and his twin, Salvatore - the former evoking memories of Gastone Moschin's odious Don Fanucci in 'The Godfather II' and the latter, spouting Buddhist quotes to Dickie.

One quote stands out, though.

"It's the wanting. All life is pain. Pain comes from always wanting things," Sal tells his nephew.

And in many ways that brilliantly sums up the darkness at the heart of Chase's TV series and this film.

Tony Soprano's woes and Dickie Moltisanti's woes stem from wanting the perfect Mobster life - the family, the big house, the mistresses, the wealth, the power to decide who lives and dies, the ability to put one over rivals and the law, the salving of their consciences.

And the pressure of wanting all those things just grinds them down.

If you were to pick one other standout performance in the film, though, it has to be Vera Farmiga's as Livia Soprano.

Looking and sounding uncannily like Edie Falcon's Carmela but capturing the withering put downs and facial ticks of Nancy Marchand's Livia, she takes the old aphorism that most men marry their mother to a whole new Oedipal level.

With a soundtrack that boasts Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Gil Scott Heron, Neil Diamond, The Rolling Stones and a glorious use of Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks,' Taylor does a decent job transferring the mean streets of Newark to the big screen.

The transition isn't completely smooth and early on, the film takes a while to find its feet.

However it does enough to ensure its scenes don't get too flabby and it quickly settles into a rhythm.

Ultimately, though, it is the quality of Chase and Konner's writing and the acting that reels the audience in.

While undoubtedly The Many Saints of Newark' feels like it is building towards the TV series, by the time the credits roll you sense there may also be room for at least one more prequel movie.

We have seen the young Tony in his formative years but we haven't yet seen him mutate into the complicated murderer of the TV series.

On the strength of this movie, the ingredients are there for another exploration of that either as a movie or TV show.

Whatever path Chase and his collaborators choose, sign me up.

('The Many Saints of Newark' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on September 24, 2021 and had a simultaneous cinema and streaming release on HBO Max in the United States on October 1, 2021)

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