One of the most famous scenes in The Irishman comes when Robert de Niro beats up a shopkeeper. Taking advantage of the then zeitgeist for CGI de-aging actors, the 78-year-old actor plays a much younger mafia soldier and gamely gives a man a kicking in the gutter. It was very apparent he was having as much trouble standing as he was kicking, and the clip got passed around the internet as a sour and undignified meme. Now 82, the seemingly evergreen de Niro plays another Frank, this time Costello, in Barry Levinson’s mob exposé The Alto Knights. Although there is no de-aging here, it does go in for the stunt of having the lead play two roles, frequently in the same scene. So, is this more about the gimmick than the story? Or is it as satisfying and cohesive as Dead Ringers, which pulled this trick off about as well as can be imagined many years ago?
Happily, the film, written by Nicholas Pileggi, is first and foremost a showcase for a good story and fine acting. The tale told is interesting, detailing the 1950s rift that developed between two of the most powerful mafia dons to exist in America, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Why de Niro elected to play both remains something of a mystery to me, and there were certainly a couple of moments where I lost track of which character I was watching despite them being distinct. Costello is calm and cautious. Genovese is squirrelly and paranoid, operating clearly at a much more intense pitch. Nonetheless, this can’t help but feel a little like we are watching a bucket list project for de Niro, a technical quirk of cinema, being played with for his love and interest in his craft.
Interestingly, what separates and defines both men most of all is their wives. Debra Messing excels as Bobbie Costello, a cool and thoughtful compliment to Frank’s calculations and scheming. Kathrine Narducci is equally terrific as Anna Genovese, a passionate loose cannon who sets most of the plot in motion by taking her husband to court. In this courtroom, the public’s understanding of organized crime truly begins to metastasize, gravely undermining the mafia’s rule of silence. The tale signals the beginning of the end for a golden age of largely unnoticed mob operations, explaining how the malaise of organized crime finally came to the attention of a certain J. Edgar Hoover.
“…Genovese sees the only way to fix things is to have Costello killed…”
Levinson does the feud at the heart of The Alto Knights justice, as expected from the man who gave us the incomparable Tin Men. Both characters ring true and are preoccupied with setting things right in their own way. Costello wants to maintain the political weight and prestige the mob has gathered. However, the control was Genovese’s to give away; a hasty succession brought about as an emergency measure when he was forced to flee to Italy for a few years. Calmly rational, Genovese sees the only way to fix things is to have Costello killed, something we see attempted in the opening.
The acting and story easily carry this into an absorbing and informative guide to the upper echelons of mob business. A great deal of the plot is pretty much the foundation for the conflict in The Godfather, bringing about frequent, though not unwelcome sense of deja vu. At times it’s almost like listening in on that Coppola classic from a different room.
The Alto Knights is an impressive film, taking inherently interesting material and doing very well not to foul it up. Sure, it’s something we’ve seen de Niro do before, but it leaves you wanting more of it, as he fits this mold perfectly. I left the film feeling he still has lots of fine work left in the tank. One of the better mob pictures.
"…something we've seen de Niro do before, but it leaves you wanting more..."
