Gomorra Review

Posted by Steve Gustafson on 02.13.2009

A good example of a movie that should be seen by many but won't because it has subtitles.

Salvatore Abruzzese: Totò
Marco Macor: Marco
Toni Servillo: Franco
Carmine Paternoster: Roberto
Salvatore Cantalupo: Pasquale
Carlo Del Sorbo: Don Carlo
Gianfelice Imparato: Don Ciro
Simone Sacchettino: Simone
Vincenzo Altamura: Gaetano
Italo Renda: Italo
Maria Nazionale: Maria

Directed by Matteo Garrone
Book by Roberto Saviano
Screenplay by Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, and Roberto Saviano

Release date: February 13, 2009 (Limited Release)
In Italian with English subtitles
Running Time: 137 min
Not Rated



*****THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SLIGHT SPOILERS*****

Let's get some things out of the way right from the start. This is not The Godfather. This is not The Sopranos. The majority of you won't see this because it's in Italian with subtitles. Got all that? Good. Now, if you take the time to find it and watch it, you'll be blow away by its gritty portrayal of a contemporary mob that shows Italy's criminal underbelly in all it's ruthlessness. Based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Roberto Saviano (Which has sold over one million copies in Italy alone), Gomorra isn't told in a straightforward story, but rather offer a series of dark, extremely real examples of how the ominous Camorra (or the System, though neither is ever spoken in the film) controls everything with a tight grip in Naples, Italy. We follow 5 stories that take place around a dilapidated housing project and you quickly draw parallels between the rotting structures and the crime institution. Very early on you realize that this movie does nothing to glamorize the gang network and is quite content to wallow in the sludge that is shown on screen. Director Matteo Garrone takes Saviano's detailed first-person account, and delivers a film that is unflinching in its storytelling that centers on the gangster-centric economy of drugs, high-fashion sweatshops, and toxic waste.

The movie opens with a misdirecting sequence in a beauty salon and a graphic shootout, a nice set up that leads you to believe this is going to be "just another gang" film. Nothing could be further from the truth. Watching this movie is like being led through a labyrinth. A very deliberate labyrinth. You don't know where you are going to end up, but the journey is layered, complex, and riveting every step of the way. We follow Toto (Salvatore Abruzzese), a serious 13 year old boy, who lives in squalor, and wants to join with the gangsters who run it. By the end of the film, he matures fast in this world, his youth shattered. We leave him as he does things to those around him that would have seemed unthinkable when we first meet him. Cut over to Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato), a mob runner, delivering money and supplies to the families of mob prisoners. All he wants is to remain faceless in the mafia set up but gets squeezed into the war between factions, and before long paranoia takes over and he's wearing a bullet proof vest for his own safety. Along with him is hotheaded Marco (Marco Macor). We see Roberto (Carmine Paternoster), a college graduate, given a dream job working with Franco (Toni Servillo), who runs a scam of disposing of waste from the city by taking it out to the country and burying it. Not surprisingly, the cancer rate in the countryside rockets up and Roberto deals with his own conscious as he becomes more and more aware of the consequences of his actions. Signing off on a container of toxic waste to the African captain of a container ship as humanitarian aid can do that to you. We follow Pasquale (Salvatore Cantalupo), a talented clothing designer, who's put to the test by his friend and boss to complete a contract for dresses in less time than he is comfortable with. Taking a risk to himself (Italians don't like the competition), he takes an offer from a Chinese factory boss, which he soon regrets. Taking the job means crossing the Comorra, so he hides in the trunk on the way over to the factory, with a make-shift hole behind the backseat so he can breath. His work ends up being worn by celebrities like Scarlett Johansson (Angelina Jolie in the book, from what I hear.) In Gomorra the men at the top are trapped just as much as the lowly soldiers at the bottom. They might have more money, but they aren't living the lifestyle that typical mafia movies accustom us to. The last act and epilogue of Gomorra deliver a blow to the audiences senses about the Camorra organization. They're growing. Getting stronger. Working from local hoodlum schemes to blend into international commerce, even, as the film states, assisting with the reconstruction of the World Trade Center.

Gomorra has that semi-documentary, authentic feel that makes it easier for you to focus on the story on not on the actors. And that's a huge compliment. I had to research and make sure I was watching actors because of they were so committed on screen that I could find it entirely plausible that these people are who they said they are. It's difficult to judge the acting in a foreign film, especially when you are not familiar with the actors. Toni Servillo especially stood out as Franco and you will long remember Salvatore Abruzzese as Toto. Outside a couple of known actors, the rest have theatrical backgrounds and some were even taken off the streets. The only knock against this movie is not a knock at all. That being it's European so American audiences won't give it a chance. That’s our loss. The movie aims to keep the audience mesmerized by the story. And it works. The pace of the movie is measured, very deliberate. Some might feel it’s moves too slow but it's patience makes the violence shocking when it comes. In the world we are introduced to, life has lost it's weight. The camera gives us a peek at a cerebral gangster world, where events are sudden. Where two fat men in beach shorts mow down a pair of druggies who have become annoying to them. In that instance we are drawn in and curious about life that is so different from ours. Especially when you think this world is real and just on the other side of the ocean from us. This movie truly is hypnotic with its accuracy and blurs the lines between dramatic film and documentary with impressive results.

I've discussed this film with others and many of them mention director Fernando Meirelles's City of God when comparing its authenticity and style. Others say it's influenced by the gangster pictures of Jean-Pierre Melville. While a fair comparison to a point, I can't fully agree because the way the stories come together in a way we haven’t seen before. We are engaged in a way that will be new for most audiences. For most of you reading this I would say it favors HBO’s The Wire in storytelling with more of a documentary eye and edits. While The Wire had seasons to tell it’s story, Gamorra takes a couple of hours. And succeeds.

It goes without saying that the editing (Marco Spoletini) and cinematography (Marco Onorato) are both ambitious when it comes to setting the grimy feel and look of the movie. The first 40 minutes catch you off guard and you might wonder if you are catching the movie half way in but when viewed as a whole you appreciate that this film doesn't speak down to you and makes you piece together the various stories that emerge. While never having the pleasure of going to Italy, Gomorra shows the island more as a run down country eating itself from the inside out over a tempting vacation spot. The movie takes any sense of hope away from you through it's brilliant use of muted colors. Each story was written by a different writer. That usually spells disaster but is superbly avoided by Garrone. With his hand held camera you see a crumbling housing estate that looks ready to topple at any moment. The faces of the simple people who portray the bottom tier hoods provide scope that shows us how entrenched the mafia still is in all facets of life, both commercial and communal in Naples. Garrone has crafted an incredible film that really makes me want to see some of his other offerings and wish he was given a chance to come over and tinker in Hollywood's playground. His debut film, L'imbalsamatore, has received rave reviews and he's has earned the right to the buzz of being the next big thing in Italian film making.

A quick note about the book. I know the coolest thing in Hollywood is basing everything on a book or graphic novel. While this movie goes down that road, it does it in a way that honors the source material in all its macabre truth. Back in 2003 , Giancarlo De Cataldo, a judge, penned Romanzo Criminale (In English it's Crime Novel), a spell binding account of the Magliana gang, a Roman crime organization he had sentenced to prison. Only the names were changed. Three years later, journalist Roberto Saviano wrote his book Gomorra, a first-hand, true look of how organized crime controls everything in his native region. The book was the result of months of hard work and direct contact with the people who keep the System (the gangsters themselves refuse to use the word Camorra, which can be considered the local version of the Sicilian Mafia) and became a huge success, the downside of which was Saviano receiving multiple death threats from the people he'd exposed and being forced to live with permanent police protection.

From open to close this movie works on all levels. I find it a bigger disservice that this movie was not nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture. To me this would have been the favorite to win. To have it not even make the list is unfathomable and a huge misstep on the part of the Academy. The final scene of this movie will stay with you long after you've gone home and returned to your normal life. It's tough. Haunting. It has glimpses of brilliance that moviegoers aren't used to. From the camera giving us lingering shots of those touched by the action to the sudden violence that erupts without mercy and the panning shots that change the context of the scene. It deftly moves you through the lifestyle but never glorifies and never falls down to the genre's clichés. My biggest compliment may be that watching this movie made me want to learn Italian so I can go back and watch it again to see what I missed in translation.

The 411: I left feeling like I just witnessed a new and grimly refreshing injection of realism into the mafia genre. It leaves you speechless and you have to take some time to process what you just saw. When was the last time a movie made you feel that way? While the majority of American mafia tales find a way to glamorize the criminal underworld, Gomorra takes no prisoners when it comes to laying everything out in front of the viewer and daring them to cast judgment. Unconventional at it's very best.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]