ShareThisBefore "Yonkers Joe," Chazz Palminteri was just a paper cutout of a mobster cliche.
He was a good cutout, an Oscar-nominated cutout, even, but every time out you knew exactly what you'd get from the one-note character actor.
This new film, written and directed by Robert Celestino, changes all that, revealing Palminteri's considerable range and intense command. Palminteri is also an executive producer.
The typecast actor breaks out of his comfort zone as Joe, a professional gambling cheat who wants to pull off one last big score in part to place his Down syndrome-afflicted son in a classy care center.
There's still a bit of Palminteri's usual persona in Joe -- he's a commanding, on-top-of-it presence with a preternatural cool that belies a simmering anger beneath the surface. But the actor shows more range in the film than in past roles.
A self-loathing con artist, Joe is a hard man who's imminently relatable.
He may be as egotistical and criminal as they come, but Palminteri makes Joe seem like the underdog who's just doing what it takes to get by.
The two people closest to Joe are his longtime girlfriend, Janice (Christine Lahti), and his son, Joe Jr. (Tom Guiry). Both crave Joe's affection, which is hard to come by.
Working in concert, Palminteri, Lahti and Guiry become a formidable ensemble, digging deep into their characters to reveal emotional longings and frustrations in a Mobius strip of misunderstanding.
Dealing off the bottom of the deck is easy for Joe; dealing with romance, not so much. Janice longs for something more, but by now knows better than to ask.
Joe knows every in and out of rolling loaded dice, but is confounded by fatherhood. Joe Jr.'s id-indulging spontaneity is the polar opposite of his father, and a constant source of embarrassment. The younger Joe screams out vulgarities, is quick to violence and never afraid to accuse his dad of abandoning him.
A possible salve for the father-son relationship comes when an associate pulls Joe in on the scam of a lifetime. The pair join Joe as he heads to Vegas.
Normally a heist film is all about buildup to the grand finale, but "Yonkers Joe" veers off for some tantalizing side action. It matters not that the heist is pulled, but how Joe goes about it.
The film is all about Joe finding out that he's got the stakes all wrong. No sleight of hand can save the soul.
3.5 stars out of 4
Rated: R for language including sexual references.
Family call: Meant for adults.
Running time: 102 minutes.
(Pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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