21 Jun Lansky Review

LANSKY

Choosing to open the movie on recreating of the famous 1971 Meyer Lansky Israeli interview, Lansky is a film of two concurrent stories: the rise of one of the most famous organized crime figures and a struggling writer who is contracted by Lansky in his later years to tell his story. Moving back and forth between both, Lansky attempts to parallel some of the choices made by the young mobster and the difficult decisions presented to his writer, David Stone. Both timelines present intriguing situations with the 1940s era offering more in the way of what organized crime movies often serve: moneymaking schemes, tenuous government alliances, double crosses, and murder. While the gaps in time lost between flashbacks fail to fully address subjects like Lansky’s consternation of having a disabled son or the failure of his first marriage to his wife Anne, the formation and rise of the Crime Syndicate and a bloody montage of Murder, Inc are still intriguing enough to entertain.

The main issue with Lansky is the overall lack of urgency in the film. Even at times where the story should be tense, the glaring dearth of any real suspension takes all the bite out of what could’ve been a compelling story. The beginning of the third act, as David Stone is pulled into events over his head and out of his control, any decision to keep the audience on the edge of their seat and wondering what happens next falls flat. As compared to the mob movie Goodfellas as Henry Hill’s life is falling apart in that one frantic day, that feeling of dread or impossible to overcome circumstances is devastatingly nonexistent in Lansky.

Even though Lansky stars Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Keitel and Sam Worthington (who we’ve all apparently forgotten was the face of America’s highest grossing movie ever), the credit lies squarely with John Magaro as young Meyer Lansky. As the star of the flashbacks, his brash confidence and quiet intelligence are played wonderfully by Magaro. Comparatively, Keitel is still in fine form as the 1980s version, more mellow and calm in his older years. Keitel brings a wry charm to the gangster and his chemistry and interaction with Worthington’s David Stone are the sharpest written scenes in the film. Worthington turns in a quiet performance as Stone, caught between the Lansky and the FBI as they continue to investigate him to find his hidden money. Worthington carries the emotional weight as he drifts further from his wife while struggling to stay connected to their daughter.

Eytan Rockaway’s sophomore feature, Lanksy was both written and directed by him and it appears his eye for directing outweighs his way with words (towards the end of the film, Lansky looks Stone in the eyes and tells him “I’m an angel with a dirty face,” which is a laughably bad line). The movie’s strongest suit lies in it’s technical work: sharp cinematography and clean production design do the majority of the heavy lifting within the film. A creative stumbling block of the movie is Rockaway’s decision to capture the present day 1980s look and the 1940s flashback without much visual distinction; the bright, dazzling explosion that was 1980s Miami is shot equally as drab as the 1940s scenes. Any opportunity to give each timeline its own unique tone and flavor was unfortunately squandered. Still, with a runtime one minute shy of two hours, the narrative flow of the problems Lansky faces in the 40s and Stone faces in the 80s interweave seamlessly enough to make the film move at a good pace. A testament to great editing, at no point does the transitions between the periods feel jarring or out of place.

Overall, Lansky is a middle of the road crime movie that will likely only appeal to the hardcore fans of mob movies. A far cry from the monumental films that represent the genre, Lansky resides somewhere closer to Hoodlum or American Me. Unfortunately, the strongest takeaway from the movie is completely unintentional: Lansky serves to shed a good bit of light into how much of the man went on to inform Lee Strasberg’s Hyman Roth of Godfather II fame. A strong performance by John Magaro is aided by an applaudable effort from Sam Worthington and Harvey Keitel, but ultimately the movie is hampered by a middling story with little in the way of tension or excitement. Lansky is in select theaters and on demand June 25th.

Review by Darryl Mansel