God's Pocket Reviews (original) (raw)

Summary In the gritty, blue-collar neighborhood of God's Pocket, Mickey Scarpato's crazy stepson, Leon, is killed in a construction “accident,” and Mickey quickly tries to bury the bad news with the body. But when a local columnist comes sniffing around for the truth, things go from bad to worse. Mickey finds himself stuck in a life-and-death st...

Crime
Drama

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While the subject matter is often bleak, this isn’t a depressing journey. Seeing great actors at the top of their game working with such rich material is never a downer.

You can tell by some loose threads and hurried workmanship that God’s Pocket is a knock-off, but it’s so stuffed with value, it’s an offer you can’t refuse.

Some reviews have suggested that the plot is weak. It is true that nothing much happens, but that is the point; nothing much happens in God's Pocket. The plot is really just a vehicle for character exploration, but does provide some irresistible black comedy. The real beauty of the film lies in the evocation of a particular time and place, and in the study of the characters, which is compelling in itself. This is one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's final films, and he was quietly brilliant, to the extent that I couldn't imagine the film working with anyone else in the lead. At forty-six, he was probably only halfway through his career, and it is very sad to think of all the wonderful films he was yet to make.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Slattery does at times struggle to bring anything new to the impoverished blue-collar, working-class trope. Relying heavily on several top-drawer character actors to lift his occasionally flat, even nihilistic story of love and death amidst urban decay, it's Hoffman and Jenkins that deserve the largest proportion of praise, while other characters quickly fall to the wayside of our interest.

Many of the individual scenes are compelling, with a gritty tension that recalls "The Wire" and other good television. But too many of the attempts at "The Sopranos"-style comic drama fail.

The film only intermittently displays the snap, precision and stylistic smarts a mixed-tone project like this requires; a half-good effort is not enough where buoyancy and a sly-to-mean spiritedness are required at all times.

The story... could have worked well as a pitch-black comedy, but first-time director John Slattery (Mad Men's Roger Sterling) takes the material so seriously that the mood never changes much after leaving the funeral home.

We are encouraged to find these people stupidly brutal or comedic without being given the slightest idea as to why they might be that way.

Well this pocket is empty. The acting in the movie is really good, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro and Richard Jenkins did really good in this film. But the movie lacks on characters and the writing in the movie wasn't that good to be honest. I wanted to like this movie but it kind of let me down, because I thought i was going to love this movie but i didn't. Overall god's pocket is a mediocre film with good acting but a weak script. Could have been better.

A very well acted worth while film that's very dark and depressing. The acting is top notch and well the story isn't great it's still worth at least one viewing. B

Conclusion: disappointing, such a pity because I expected a much more concise and better work done. And in a film that includes Phillip Seymour Hoffman and John Turturro is a shame.

Production Company Park Pictures, Cooper's Town Productions, Shoestring Pictures

Release Date May 9, 2014

Duration 1 h 28 m

Rating R

Tagline The only thing they can't forgive is not being from ... God's Pocket