"Until recently you only had to die once in this city, even if you came from God's Pocket." Mickey Scarpato (Hoffman) is the step-father to a kid that no one in the city really likes. The son gets killed at work one day but no one will tell the truth about what happened. This doesn't bother Mickey and he is ready to bury him right away but his wife and the boys mother demands the truth. Mickey does what he can to find out what happened but between finding out the truth, trying to make his wife happy and finding a way to pay for the funeral things begin to pile on top of him. When his wife turns to news reporter Richard Shellburn (Jenkins) for additional help things really begin to spiral out of control. This is a tough movie to review. I did think the movie was good and tense but did move very slow and was hard to stay focused on. The acting was great and this was very realistic but again though the pacing made it hard to stay engrossed in. Hoffman did a great job of playing someone who seemed lost and under an immense amount of stress and Jenkins was great as a sleazy reporter. The number one reason to watch this is for the acting. The movie itself, again, is pretty good but it is one you have to be in the mood for otherwise it will be a struggle to make it through. Overall, a movie that is worth seeing if you are in the mind set for it. It's too bad that Hoffman died because he is great in roles like this. I give it a B-.

It's the working class neighborhood called God's Pocket by its inhabitants. Mickey Scarpato (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is married to Jeanie (Christina Hendricks) and living with her loudmouth son Leon. He and Arthur Capezio (John Turturro) work for Sal Cappi (Domenick Lombardozzi) to hijack trucks. Mickey is too annoying and gets killed. Everybody lies that it's a work accident. Jeanie refuses to let it go. Drunken faded reporter Richard Shelburn (Richard Jenkins) reluctantly takes the story.

I sense that there is a compelling story to be filmed but this doesn't have the style. It wants to have a hard edge but that only occurs intermittently. Director John Slattery is able to get some great actors and probably called in a few favors. They are wasted in a film that lacks a sense of a place. Mostly, it lacks intensity. And it's not funny despite attempts at some dark humor. It's just flat.

Leon (Caleb Landry Jones) is not a very likeable young man. He is killed after he pulls a knife on a worker and insults him. Everyone saw he was murdered, yet everyone saw an industrial accident. His mother Jeanie (Christina Hendricks) believes something is wrong. Her husband Mickey (Philip Seymour Hoffman) thinks so too, but is distracted by his "side" businesses and gambling.

The story centers on a small community known as "God's Pocket" a small sector of the city where everybody knows everything about everyone within the neighborhood. They don't like outsiders.

Philip Seymour Hoffman once again shines in the third movie that he has made since he died. He will be in two more. (David Carradine did nine.) The film was a comedy at times, but was mostly a tragedy. I think those who would simply call it a dark comedy are smug individuals who have never lived in a working class community. You know the same people who looked down and laughed at the characters in "Jack Goes Boating." They need to be pummeled. (A little blue-collared dark humor inspired from the film.)

The film is character driven (not much action or plot) but is more about the character of a community than individuals. I would really like to see less of Philip Seymour Hoffman having sex, although not as bad as "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

Worth a rental. Good performances by what appears to be type casting.

Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity.