The Irishman: A Legendary Collaboration You Don’t Want To Miss

This is a non-spoiler review for The Irishman.

Directed by the living legend Martin Scorsese, The Irishman ambitiously gathers a cast with some of the biggest names in Gangster Genre, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci. If you were wondering if it lived up to the hype:

It sure did.

(Click here for the review of another one of our favorite Scorsese’s films: The Departed)

Based on a true story, the movie follows Frank Sheeran and how he, as an Irishman, climbs his way to the top of the Italian Mafia, and how he gets involved with Jimmy Hoffa, a known mobster from the time.

Martin Scorsese constantly presents some secondary characters with some card titles showing the way they died. This decision was made so the audience could digest the fact that this is more than just a gangster movie with deadly fictional risks but in fact real people with real enemies who were constantly threatened and targeted.

The Irishman is really, really long; however, it doesn’t feel like it drags, and watching these almost mythical actors together really makes for a worthwhile experience. The story elements are enough for a whole mini-series, however, Scorsese, being a master in his craft and with all his experience in filmmaking and the gangster genre, managed to seamlessly tell a cohesive story without sacrificing the pacing while successfully establishing each of its characters through the story’s worldbuilding.

Specifically, the first act does a standout job with the characterization of Frank and Russ. It perfectly lays out the details of their behavior, personality, flaws and decision-making process, so that the audience is better able to follow their journey in the remaining of the film.

The directing is great, if for some miraculous reason you didn’t know who directed the film, you could guess in the first minutes it’s a Scorsese’s film. He perfected his trademark directing style and it is perhaps one of the best things on The Irishman; it actually transports you to his gangster movies of old.

For a movie about the mob, you would expect lots of excess, drugs, women or clubs, however, it’s more subtle than that, there aren’t even as many shootouts or bloody scenes as one would’ve though. Instead, the movie is focused on the characters scheming and double-crossing each other to get (or stay) on the top.

The de-aging technology had some issues and became a little distracting in some scenes, like when Frank meets Russ on the road. At times, the story gets so tangled up and it can feel convoluted. You could even draw a pretty big diagram with all the characters and relationships put together, to help you remember some stuff. However, the Irishman has a pretty straightforward plot and that’s what you need to know.

The story ends in the same location it started, with the same choice of music, which is probably a purposeful choice meaning how it all comes back to where it began, and there is no running from that.

This was a nice comeback to the Gangster Genre for the big four: Scorsese, DeNiro, Pacino and Pesci. Seeing them together sharing the screen for the first time in a gangster movie was a delight. Their experience and their superb chemistry are pretty evident in The Irishman. This chemistry really made the wonderfully written pieces of dialogue made by Steven Zaillian have much more punch.

Although, we actually would’ve liked to have this movie some years back, since the old age can be seen through the main actors in the way they walked, stand and especially when they had to get physical in the scenes where they portrayed a younger version of their characters. Nevertheless, this was just a minor detail in an almost perfect film.

The Irishman Veredict:

In short, The Irishman is a movie that may not entertain general audiences and perhaps it’s not the best option for a movie night with friends or when you just want to have a fun time. This is a movie you have to digest and get invested because every little decision the characters make will inevitably create a chain of events with lots of implications. So if you are up for that, this might be the movie of the year for you.

Score: 9.5/10

Perfect chemistry with an A-list cast, masterfully directed with an interesting story with complex dynamics.