Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) returns to Hell's Kitchen to find it gentrified. His old friend Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) is still a lowlife killer. His ex Kathleen Flannery (Robin Wright) is now working in an uptown hotel. Their old brother Frankie Flannery (Ed Harris) is the cruel leader of an Irish gang. Stevie McGuire (John C. Reilly) is also in the gang. Pat Nicholson (R.D. Call) is Frankie's right hand man. Frankie kills nice kid Stevie. Terry turns out to be a cop and begging his handler Nick (John Turturro) to pull him out.

There are some strong performances. Gary Oldman is the standout as the wild criminal. Sean Penn pulls it back a little and form a perfect pair with Oldman. It may be better to reveal Terry sooner. It's best to do it at the end of the introduction. It opens up his inner conflict and allows for a deeper character. The music is memorable with the haunted tones.

Modern-day gangster drama involving Irish-American mobsters in New York's Hell's Kitchen District. Inspired by real characters, this tiresome film has good actors screaming and swearing at each other for over two hours. Dark and ugly throughout (with wonderful John C. Reilly dying in bloody close-up),the film may use 'real life' as a basis for its ideas, but Martin Scorsese is whom the filmmakers are trying to match. Director Phil Joanou muddies up everything; his vision is very puny and he doesn't shape the scenes with the characters in mind (they're incidental to how everything is staged vis-a-vis the camera). It's also a heavily-padded and clichéd picture: Robin Wright plays the proverbial girlfriend-from-the-right-side role (usually played in these things by Daryl Hannah or Lori Singer). *1/2 from ****

State of Grace is directed by Phil Joanou and written by Dennis McIntyre. It stars Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright, John Turturo and John C. Reilly. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth.

Terry Noonan (Penn) returns to Hells Kitchen after a number of years away and finds his best pal, Jackie Flannery (Oldman),is a major player in the Irish/American mob being run by his elder brother, Frankie Flannery (Harris). With a love interest rekindled and a secret he dare not reveal, Terry is soon caught in a maelstrom of danger and tested loyalties.

It got lost in the slipstream of Goodfellas, but although it's not in the same league as Scorsese's critical darling, State of Grace is a splendid slice of neo-noir gangsterism. The plot is made up of standard genre tropes, divided loyalties, betrayals, kinship, revenge, rivalries, territorial machismo and etc, all of which of course comes laced with spitfire dialogue and sparky violence.

The strengths come with the performances of the lead cast members, the visual flourishes via Cronenweth and Joanou and Morricone's classical score. Penn and Oldman are forces of nature, the former a ball of emotional turbulence, the latter a hopped up maniac with killer tendencies. Harris as the daddio main man is a moody and malevolent presence, as is Joe Viterelli as mafia boss man Borelli. Wright seems a little out of place in this material, Turturo isn't used nearly enough, but Reilly scores well with a limited role and Burgess Meredith pops in for a superb cameo.

It doesn't have originality on its side, but it's a mightily strong film regardless, with the human drama drawing one in as the tech skills impress across the board. 8/10