Oh dear - I've looked forward to this movie for ages. Martin Scorsese has made not only 2 of my favourite and rewatchable movies ( as I suspect he has done for millions ) namely Goodfellas and Casino so I was expecting 3 out of 3.
Sadly not -In the face of an avalanche of praise, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I found the movie bland and flat. Is it because I watched it at home on Netflix instead of in a large screen cinema ?? I don't know - I suspect not but how come I feel like this ? The acting was OK nothing less than I would have expected from Pesci,Pacino and de Niro but not outstanding - maybe it was too long - I don't know but I found it disjointed , lacking explanation in certain scenarios ( why did Peggy hate her dad so much ? ) and no peaks or troughs in the plot - well since it was a true story then Scorsese failed to pace the movie.
Clever connection with this and Goodfellas via the song played in the wedding scene which was the same song sung by Bobby Vinton in the nightclub scene when Ray Liotta takes his girlfriend to the nighclub for the first time.
I'm sure there are those out there that would wish to correct me and defend the 5* reviews and I'm happy to be shown the light but on the face of a first viewing - I give it 3*
Just looked at Raf's review with which I agree entirely although his critique is far more learned at expansive then mine - I would say that the one scene which did seem to underpin Sheenan's Irish heritage is when he chose a bright green coffin to be buried in