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This is another Spike Lee movie about tensions in a New York
community. It bristles with emotion but is just a bit dark and
depressing for my liking.
The setting isa working class Italian American community in
the Bronx during the summer of 1977. This summer was notable
for record heatwaves, power blackouts, and teh activities of
a mysterious serial killer named Son of Sam. While these events
provide the backdrop, this is not another thriller about the
search for a murderer. It is more a study of how a certain group
of people reacted to these events and how it impacted their
lives.
The story focuses on one particular motley band which includes
Ritchie (Adrien Brody), a punk rocker who lives with his mother
and works in a gay strip bar on the side, Ruby (Jennifer Esposito),
the girl who likes to hang out with Ritchie, Vinnie (John Leguizamo),
a hairdresser who is having affairs with his boss as well as
his sister in law, and Dionne (Mira Sorvino), Vinnie's wife
who spends most of her time wondering why her husband does not
seem to have much time for sex with her.
Spliced in between these events are snippets of what else is
going on in New York such as the baseball heroics of Reggie
Jackson, plus of course the .44 calibre shootings of young brunettes
by the loony Son of Sam (Michael Badalucco). We also get to
see director Spike Lee acting as a newspaper reporter who is
following the Son of Sam story.
Overall, the acting is pretty good, especially Leguizamo and
Sorvino as the doomed couple. The direction of the movie is
pretty cool and I liked the overall framing device of Jimmy
Breslin (a NY Daily News columnist who covered the real Son
of Sam events in 1977) introducing and closing the movie, although
the 'Naked City' reference was a bit corny.
Mostly, though, this film is pretty depressing. Nothing much
goes right for any of the characters and most of them are not
that likeable anyway. This doesn't necessarily make it a bad
movie, but it does mean that I didn't like it that much (and
that's what determines my ratings).
Quite a powerful movie with some good acting, but not overly
exciting.
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