The great thing about "God's Pocket" is the fact that you are in the presence of phenomenal actors, performing at a high level as expected. The problem lies in the fact that it's all within a story that so muddled, messy and cliché' that you just find yourself dying for the film to end. And for a movie that has a run time of only 88 minutes to conjure this feeling, it's doing something very wrong. This film is billed as Philip Seymour Hoffman's final film, and what a shame that is. Not that he isn't wonderful to watch here as usual; but it's weakening to the heart to watch him play such a miserable character for no reason at all.
It's always challenging to review and talk about a film that you just don't care about at all. Perhaps the biggest reason I didn't care, or sympathize with any characters is because they just made one terrible decision after another. Whether it's Mickey betting all of his money for the funeral for Leon on horse races, Richard Shellburn making persistent efforts to get to the bottom of a bottle, or some other miserable soul crawling through the streets; It's just not interesting. There's no development of these characters. We're not given any influence to feel sorry for anyone. The film is also shot in a depressing sense. Heavy greenish, yellow tint to the lenses really gives the film an unattractive smoggy look.
There's no doubt that this is a stacked cast from top to bottom. A film like this is a perfect example that it takes more than one great element, to make a great film. The director is new to film directing, but has made runs directing the popular television series "Mad Men". And that explains a lot to me. Because watching this film, is like watching an entire episode of a long running series, smack dab in the middle for the very first time. Nothing matters, and you don't care about any of the characters.
It's always challenging to review and talk about a film that you just don't care about at all. Perhaps the biggest reason I didn't care, or sympathize with any characters is because they just made one terrible decision after another. Whether it's Mickey betting all of his money for the funeral for Leon on horse races, Richard Shellburn making persistent efforts to get to the bottom of a bottle, or some other miserable soul crawling through the streets; It's just not interesting. There's no development of these characters. We're not given any influence to feel sorry for anyone. The film is also shot in a depressing sense. Heavy greenish, yellow tint to the lenses really gives the film an unattractive smoggy look.
There's no doubt that this is a stacked cast from top to bottom. A film like this is a perfect example that it takes more than one great element, to make a great film. The director is new to film directing, but has made runs directing the popular television series "Mad Men". And that explains a lot to me. Because watching this film, is like watching an entire episode of a long running series, smack dab in the middle for the very first time. Nothing matters, and you don't care about any of the characters.