Film Review: The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)

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(source: tmdb.org)

Plenty of people could avoid problems in their lives with slightly more realistic appraisal of the situation they are in. This includes protagonist of The Pope of Greenwich Village, 1984 crimed drama directed by Stuart Rosenberg. The plot, set in Italian section of New York’s Greenwich Village, begins with Charlie Moran (played by Mickey Rourke) as head waiter in fancy restaurant. He likes to dress up, enjoys good life and dreams of restaurant of his own, but this is hard to reconcile with constant lack of money. Charlie’s problems are made worse the his life long friendship with his dimwitted cousin Paulie (played by Eric Roberts) who works as waiter in the same restaurant and gets involved in all kinds of harebrained schemes. When Paulie gets caught skimming checks, both he and Charlie lose their jobs. Paulie tries to make up for that by involving Charlie in a complicated scheme involving race horse, which is about to financed by a robbery of safe in a local building. Charlie is reluctant at first, but after learning that his girlfriend Diane (played by Daryl Hannah) is pregnant, agrees to join Paulie and Barney (played by Kenneth McMillan), middle-aged locksmith who cracks the safe. Trio is surprised by the arrival of New York police detective Walter “Bunky” Ritter (played by Jack Kehoe) who accidentally dies during the incident. They ultimately get the money but soon learn that it belonged to local mob boss Eddie “Bed Bug” Grant (played by Burt Young).

Based on the novel by Vincent Patrick (who also wrote screenplay), The Pope of Greenwhich Village was initially advertised as “light hearted” version of Mean Streets. In reality, it was a film that was slightly before its time, because the plot about lovable small time hoods and their crime enterprise going wrong belonged more to the 1990s world of low budget independent cinema instead of major studio release. The main roles are played by relatively young actors who were supposed to become major stars, just like Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro had been in Scorsese’s film. In this case, however, result is less than impressive. While Rourke is solid in the role of overambitious young man who is loyal to his friend against his better judgment, Roberts often goes over the top in role of often obnoxious petty schemer, while Hannah is reduced to pretty face. Character actors playing side roles are much better, which includes Geraldine Page as unfortunate detective’s mother in a very short performance that nevertheless got her “Oscar” nomination. Good impression is given by McMillan as the most level-headed part of criminal trio, Tony Musante as Paulie’s mobster uncle, while Burt Young slightly disappoints with somewhat one-dimensional role of intimidating mob boss. Good acting, however, doesn’t compensate for problems created by Rosenberg’s inept direction, which leads to film being overlong, boring at times and even confusing in certain scenes. “Summer Wind”, song by Frank Sinatra used at opening and end titles, is actually the most memorable element of the whole film.

RATING: 4/10 (++)

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