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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Gomorrah

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#1 of 1 Posted 1/29/09 10:51 PM

From harveykarten Posts 744 Last Nov-19
To All [Msg # 23705.1 ]

GOMORRAH

IFC Films
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed by: Matteo Garrone
Written By: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano, from Roberto Saviano’s book
Cast: Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettino, Salvatore Ruocco, Vincenzo Fabricino, Vincenzo Altamura, Italo Renda, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Striano, Carlo Del Sorbo
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 1/29/09
Opens: February 13, 2009

Here’s something I’ve been wondering about. People engaged in organized crime, people who kill, maim, threaten, extort, poison, in short do anything to get their hands on dollars, euros, whatever: just what do they do with all that money? The press notes for Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” indicate that the Camorra, the syndicated operators whose activities are centered in Naples and Caserta, take in 500,000 euros a day in the drug trade. In the U.S., we see from the movies that criminals enjoy clubbing, fancy restaurants and night clubs. Maybe they give women jewelry. But from Garrone’s picture, the mostly homely, obese, uneducated creeps seem never to leave the ghettos in which they work. Some drive nothing fancier than a Vespa. What’s the deal?

We all know that organized crime is connected with drugs, prostitution, and shakedowns of small and larger businesses, but did you know that they have their fingers directly in the fashion industry—not just connecting from, but running the production of fake designer clothes? There’s quite a bit of information contained in this film, though even at two and one-quarter hours it cannot possibly cover everything in Robert Saviano’s “Gomorrah: A Person Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System,” translated by Virginia Jewiss.

As a conveyer of information, “Gomorrah” rocks. As for being riveting—not so much. Perhaps the reason is that Garrone, known previously for “L’Imbalsamatore” (a taxidermist if ridiculed for being short and creepy), deliberately fashions his film as a docu-drama, one which has a few illustrations of violence such as a bombing of a car and the machine-gunning activities of two bored, moronic kids but is in no way comparable to the level of mayhem in “City of God.” Aside from its documentary look, the film suffers by its haphazard treatment of five separate families involved in Camorra activities whose inter-relationship comes through late in the story—and even then, the tapestry is not tightly woven. Audience members who relish solid narratives will be disappointed by the hang-loose trajectory. Robert Altman fans may be more sanguine.

That said, the five scripters (one handling each family?) deal impressively with these people: before you go into the theater, it pays to read the program. Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is probably loved by the families he pays, the families of prisoners who have been with his clan. He has more class than most of his fellow criminals. Toto (Salvatore Abruzzese), who has just entered his teen years, who wears a shirt with “England 7” on his back and tweezes his eyebrows, is called on to decide whether to join the “family.” Marco (Marco Macor) and Ciro (Ciro Petrone) are the most immature and undisciplined of the lot, generally relieving themselves of boredom by firing machine guns into the water while wearing nothing but underwear, in one instance blowing up a boat. The two can be seen on posters marketing the movie. Roberto (Carmine Patermoster) is the other classy guy, a college grad who by rights should have moved to Rome to begin an honest career but is seduced by an offer from Franco (Toni Servillo) to dispose of toxic waste. Pasquale (Salvatore Cantalupo) is a master tailor who “sells out” to Chinese competitors in the garment industry and must be smuggled in the trunk of the Chinese boss’s car to avoid being killed by those who control the territory.

The geography compares unfavorably with the favelas treated by Fernando Meirelles in his 2002 film “City of God.” Using film texture that is sometimes grainy, with a translation in the subtitles that is difficult to read when against a white background, Garrone hones in on the big shots and their seedy careers, much of which consists of counting worn euro notes. The opening scenes are a hodge-podge of exposition, then the story takes hold. We meet the above-mentioned people carrying on their diurnal activities which include, on the bottom of the scale, kid who delivers groceries but moves on to delivering goods that to some are more satisfying than skim milk. When it comes to character development, though, the most interesting folks would include Pasquale, a tailor who is considered a traitor because he sneaks by night into a shop with eighty Chinese employees, lecturing to them about the finer points of sewing knockoff designer garments. His talk is translated by two Chinese who are fluent in Italian. He is one of the few with a conscience, his competitor in that regard being college-educated Roberto, who may not have learned methods of polluting the water supply with toxic chemicals while in the halls of academe and who makes a decision ultimately to walk away.

One wonders what the carabinieri do with their time—possibly sipping cappuccino with their panatone while the people they should be chasing are committing havoc. They seem to be somewhere else when the killings, maimings, and poisoning take place, though the criminals are hardly as difficult to find as Osama. We leave the theater with the impression that the Camorra are not replicating just Gomorrah, but Sodom as well.

Not Rated. 135 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Gomorrah

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