This is another of those titles that I always remember seeing in among the dizzying myriad of VHS tapes that adorned the walls of whatever video store I was either checking out or working at (5 are noted on the ole resume’, no bullshit).
Even in the Way Back of the early ‘90’s, I knew most of the heavy-hitters in the cast already AND I was a sucker for a good gangster / crime story, especially in my early teens, but for some odd reason, this one never made it to my VCR. And time marched on, as it does, and, despite a lingering curiosity of the most uncommitted sort, I mostly forgot about it. Sure, I’ve seen it noted in the odd movie nerd discussion over the years and I’m familiar with a couple short scenes, but nothing screamed Must See.
Until I found it for $5 on DVD at the local VV Boutique (I love thrift stores!). In that moment, that initial curiosity from all those years ago popped back up to say Hi and I realized that this would be a great opportunity to scribble some scribbles for you fine people to read till something better arrives in your life, like laundry or dishes perhaps. Maybe a good bowel movement?
So, I added it to my already overflowing basket and brought that low-def bitch home. Fast forward a week and I’m here on an ugly grey, cold and dreary Sunday morning, post X-mas holidays, with my two dog-girls taking up most of the friggin couch as I brewed up an early morning coffee and dug up my pad and pen.
State of Grace takes place in 1990’s Hell’s Kitchen, NY, where a former New Yorker-turned- undercover Boston cop named ‘Terry Noonan’ (Sean Penn) has turned up as a reputed murderer of two alleged dealers and who is now on the run, in order to get back in the good graces of his old crew of childhood street scum buddies, namely the ‘Flannery’s; mob boss ‘Frankie’ (Ed Harris) and his wild-card younger brother ‘Jackie’ (Gary Oldman). Into this fray also comes former flame / Flannery sister ‘Kathleen’ (Robin Wright), with whom ‘Noonan’ rekindles the passion, while also risking exposure and death through some of his own questionable judgement. A twisty game of betrayals, intrigue and murder involving the cops, the Italian mob and members of their own crew unspools, threatening to take down everybody involved, as ‘Noonan’ himself teeters on the edge of mental collapse, aided by an increasing reliance on substance abuse and desperation.
Hot coffee was slurped, a dog growled and farted in her sleep, and the PLAY button was hit.
Scribbles then happened –
-Great cast! On top of those listed above, we also get John Turturro (The Big Lebowski), John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) and R.D. Call (Last Man Standing), among several other familiar faces from other New York-set mob stories, up to and including The Sopranos (1999 – 2007).
-Ennio? Sweet! Ennio Morricone (The Thing) is essentially a member of old school Hollywood royalty, with him having crafted a dizzying number of excellent scores in his day. Look no further than his contributions to the Spaghetti Western Genre. I was genuinely surprised to see his name in the credits and then I was surprised again when I found his musical contributions to be decidedly lacklustre. Nothing really stood out to me, not like some of his previous, classic themes and compositions. The score was just kind of…there. Almost just filler.
-Turturro! Though I’d seen his name in the opening credits, it was still worthy of mention when he appeared onscreen as another undercover cop.
-Ha! BHC and OUATIA guy! Type cast scumbag. By that, I mean Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Once Upon a Time in America (also 1984) and I’m referring to actor James Russo. Those are only two roles but this dude’s been in the game since the early 80’s and he’s STILL working today. Impressive.
-Liking the grit. Director Phil Joanou does a good job of embracing the grime and grit of Hell’s Kitchen, employing lots of on-location shooting in the distinctly New York neighbourhood.
-Classic Penn. Still punching paps? This was just around the time that Penn had bailed on Madonna and seemed to be popping out the other side of his days of punching the lights out of intrusive paparazzi assholes and I was reminded, looking at how young he was, that that was a thing that happened at some time.
-Prime Time Oldman. Hands scene. Gary Oldman (The Fifth Element) arguably ruled the 90’s, effortlessly bouncing back and forth between indie / arthouse projects and large-scale Hollywood blockbusters, usually to financial success and / or critical acclaim. One of his strength’s was the ability to just go for it, to embrace the unhinged natures of the slew of mercurial characters he was working through during that decade. A good example here is an early scene where ‘Jackie’ torments a shocked ‘Noonan’ with a pair of frozen human hands, severed and used by the crew to plant finger prints on illicit firearms, to throw the cops off. The glee Oldman injects into ‘Jackie’ is not just amusing, but also speaks to the psychosis lurking just below the grimy, beer-and-cigarette-soaked surface.
-Just capping off shots. Rooftop. Night time. Hood. Smart. This is a thing Oldman and Penn do…and it’s stupid.
-Hmmmm…young Robin Wright. Robin Wright (The Princess Bride) has never struck me as some drop-dead gorgeous example of sexy femininity onscreen, being more a good- looking woman of a rather pedestrian nature than a straight-up hot object of desire. HOWEVER, I will admit that Joanou did set her up to look good and the couple nude shots we get were more than welcome.
-Let’s now add John C. Reilly. The late 80’s / early 90’s were when this dorky-looking but surprisingly talented actor started showing up in various supporting roles, often as a comic relief element (*see Days of Thunder). Here, he wasn’t so much a source of amusement as he was the catalyst for the downward spiral of everyone involved.
-Gun moves on the wind? Haha! Whoops. After a fist-fight with some Italian mob goons, Penn grabs a discarded pistol and brazenly tosses it into the ocean as a last Fuck You. The thing is, when he let’s fly, the piece arcs sideways like a curveball, betraying that the gun was NOT made of metal, more than likely some kind of shaped foam or plastic, resulting in the clear lack of weight we see when the piece is yeeted out into the waves.
-OK, so arson now? At one point, ‘Noonan’ and ‘Jackie’ enthusiastically douse a deserted building in gasoline before childishly turning ‘escaping the soon-to-be roaring inferno with their lives’ into a needlessly risky game.
‘Noonan’ is still an undercover cop. Just saying.
-Ed Harris always gets intense as a villain. That. Right there.
-And just like that…Wright-Penn. Sex scene. When unwrapped, Robin Wright is a sexy lady in the nude, so I can see why Penn’s dick probably led him straight into marriage with her. Twice.
–Why the throat?! Stab the pump! As a dude who has long suffered a stupid blood phobia, the idea of a slit throat makes me queasy, second only to the idea of a sliced femoral. *shudders* A key character is set upon and in the fray, a blade is dragged across his wind-pipe, leaving him sputtering and spurting in a darkened alleyway. All the commotion, suffering and mess could’ve been avoided had that same blade been driven, with force, straight into the ole ticker. If done right, I’d imagine there’s little spurting red and less thrashing around if the heart is stopped dead in its tracks. But noooo…here, the poor son-of-a-bitch is bled out like a Halal swine.
-LOTS of smoking and drinking. How very Irish! That’s just a good-natured ribbing for any good folks from the Isle of Erin out there. But damn, this movie does THAT image no favours.
-Oldman does wreck-show well. Church scene. I forgot how physical an actor Gary Oldman was back in the 90’s and this scene, of a pissed-to-the-gills and grieving ‘Jackie’ stumbling throughout an empty church while throwing a drunken tantrum was a definite reminder.
-You drunken fucking idiot! Why confess unprompted?! A numbskull stupid move! ‘Terry Noonan’, as played by Sean Penn, is a dumbass. Some of his decisions and actions were moronic to the point where I found it hard to root for him, even though we’re supposed to…I think. Here, he just straight-up tearfully confesses his undercover status to ‘Kathleen’, the fucking sister of the two dudes he’s laboring to put behind bars, and he wasn’t even prompted to do so! *slaps forehead in disbelief* And, not the only example of poor judgement to be displayed during the 2 hour and 14 minute run-time.
-Good use of location shooting. The grittiness continues. It looked like they filmed all over the New York area and the chosen locations did a solid job establishing a run-down, lived-in feel, almost documentary-like.
-Messy bartender kill. I approve. Silenced pistol? Check. Slow motion? Check. Gory blood squibs doing their thing? Check. Exploding booze bottles everywhere? Check. This quick scene had it all…and I was OK with it.
-That’s one way to end an awkward social situation. .38 style. I actually did not see this abrupt mini-massacre coming when ‘Jackie’, lacking key pieces of info and misreading a blossoming situation, lights up a trio of Italian mobsters who where legitimately attempting to bury the hatchet with him in a bar over drinks. Oopsies!
-“Nothing personal, Richie, but you’re stupid.” LOL. This off-the cuff insult, doled out by Penn to one of the Irish goons, had me chuckling with its directness. It had been immediately preceded by the dreaded ‘R’ word, which I admittedly found amusing too. *shrugs again*
-Not how I expected Oldman to go. Don’t want to spoil much, just in case, but his fate is sealed by an unexpected source and it’s surprisingly low-key for such a volatile character.
-WFT?! Gives his ID? Another stupid move! Not even a fake name. Here he goes again. So, ‘Noonan’, in what is probably supposed to be some macho cop ‘flex’, walks up to ‘Frankie’ at a funeral (again, unprompted), and literally just straight-up hands over his badge and ID, to let the Irish gangster know who’s coming for him (Ooooo…scary!), and then walks the fuck away, leaving Ed Harris standing there holding, you know, only his goddamn POLICE BADGE AND IDENTIFICATION!! Shit he MAY actually need to do his goddamn job! How do you root for a character this dumb?!
-This dude and his fuckin confessions! Definitely not cut out for undercover. *see previous scribble
-Time to get some killin done! Out come the guns, shit’s going down!
-Notorious Paddy’s Day shoot-out. Cool sound design. If there’s one scene this flick is known for, it’s the climactic confrontation / shoot-out in a dingy bar as a large Saint Patrick’s Day parade passes nearby, the slow-motion action intercut with shots of the festive Irish pageantry for contrast. Working with the slow-motion death and destruction, only key sounds in the messy exchange of gunfire are highlighted, giving the violence an almost dream-like edge.
-Squibs! I miss the days when big bloody squibs were strapped to actors / stuntmen and used on-set and in-camera, giving gunshots a visceral yet theatrical punch that just looks rad on the Big Screen.
-Wait! That’s it?! Well, OK then. It’s one of THOSE, with a hum-drum abrupt ending that felt like there should’ve been more story to tell, but circumstances prevented, for some reason. It felt like the screen-writer and / or director couldn’t settle on a real definitive ending that tied things up so under the guise of being artsy and maybe a little pretentious, stopped the narrative prematurely. At least, that’s how it felt to lil ole me.
All in all, I’m glad that I finally, after all these years, took the time to check out this early ‘90s, all-star ‘undercover cops vs gangsters’ offering, and if I have to sum up my first impression, I’d have to say that State of Grace is…drum roll, please…fine.
Just…fine.
It doesn’t stack up to others of its ilk from around the same time-period, but on its own, it’s a largely solid and entertaining crime story, largely enhanced by some effective and energetic performances by Ed Harris and Gary Oldman and a couple cool scenes of good ole fashioned blood-letting. The cast is good overall, but how some of the characters, especially Sean Penn’s less-than-genius protagonist, are written and directed really worked against the movie, in my humble opinion. When I don’t like my main character, it’s tough to give a flying fuck about their cinematic journey.
State of Grace is, by no means, required viewing. If you like a spiffy crime thriller with a solid cast of up n comers (for the time) and your viewing options are limited, you could do worse than this title, should you have nothing going some grey rainy afternoon, but some time to kill.
But…you could also always do better too. Your call.
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