Bob Barone

This movie was a HUGE disappointment. Typically I absolutely love the actors in this cast, so I was excited to see them in a "based on truth story". However the actors were destined and set up for failure before they even got started by whomever casted them in the roles. Regardless of their acting abilities, they were unable to portray the youth, appearance and energy of the persons they played. Whoever casted this movie had to have done it with only 'Star Power' and audience attraction in mind. The lead role, Frank Sheeren, was played by an 'old' man, (Robert DeNiro), who they tried "desperately" to make fit the description of a young man with make-up and computer enhancement technology. They failed miserably. His appearance did not fit the character he played in the least. The only scenes where his appearance fit, and wasn't awkward to watch, was when he portrayed Sheeren "AS" an old man. While DeNiro is still a great actor, sadly, I don't think he's the DeNiro of days gone by anyway. And to put him in a role where his physical appearance doesn't match his character does him no favors. Not to bore you with a rundown of the rest of the cast, many of them also were aged out of place for the roles they played. There are a HOST of brilliant actors who could have made the movie significantly better than it was, and performed the roles superiorly. The movie was torturously dragged out and slow moving. The unnecessarily tedious detail they allowed to get on the screen was agonizing. This three and a half hour movie could have easily been cut to an hour and a half to two hours. It's a shame, because the story is one that could have been exciting and interesting to watch. Unless you've got 3 and a half hours to kill, I'd watch something else if I were you.