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A Guide To Recognizing
Your Saints
Directed by: Dito Montiel
Starring: Robert Downey Jr.
Genre:
Drama
Run Time: 98
min.
Release Date:
October 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
All character and little
substance, A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS is saved from film
depravity by some stellar performances within the fairly pedestrian
life-story of Dito Montiel, a kid growing up in a rough-and-tumble
Queens suburb during the 1980s.
Based on the memoir-cum-vignettes novel by the same name (written by
Dito, who also directed and wrote the screenplay), the movie’s premise
surrounds Dito (Robert Downey Jr.,
GOOD NIGHT,
AND GOOD LUCK) as a young wannabe ruffian dealing with an
overbearing father, a distant mother, and four friends destined for
things much worse than mediocrity. Living in New York, Dito finds
himself inserted into a life which he desperately wants out of. This
comes full-on into focus when a new student at his school named Mike
O’Shea (Martin Compston) begins talking about leaving the city for
California.
Dito constantly sees his life slipping into the Queens rut, a life that
promises either a worthless job with a girl not of his ethnicity
(prejudice rears its ugly head often in the film’s dialogue), or into a
life of street gang membership, or a life in prison, or — worse — death.
Most of these dangers lurk around his best friend Antonio (Channing
Tatum), whom Dito’s father Monty (played brilliantly by the usually
typecast mobster, Chazz Palminteri,
HOODWINKED!) views as the epitome of
what his son should be: a tough kid who’s dedicated to his family and
his neighborhood.
The film begins and ends with Dito (Downey Jr.) talking to an audience
about his novel, A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints. In between we get
to witness what transpired in Dito’s life to make him want to write
about his experiences in Queens. Shia LaBeouf (THE GREATEST GAME EVER
PLAYED) plays the adolescent Dito and does so in fine fashion, making
the audience cheer when he finally comes out to his father about his
desire to leave The City, and cringing when he returns and we learn that
his saints have all been left behind in various stages of inadequacy
(Antonio remains in prison, while Nerf still lives with his mother and
drinks like a fish).
The most impressive part of the film is that the characters are all
portrayed exceptionally well. Chazz Palminteri gives one of the best
performances of his life as a humble Queens resident with epilepsy. When
he and his son get into one of their final battles, it’s both
heart-wrenching and frightening. We feel Chazz’s character’s need to
keep his son nearby, but also understand Dito’s life necessity to get
away no matter what the cost.
It is a poignant irony that Dito returns to Queens in order to see his
ailing father and to face up to his abandonment of his parents, his
friends, and his hometown. The dichotomy between what he had to give up
to become successful and his desire to both stay away from it and yet
return to it is this movie’s greatest strength.
But if the characters were the positive, the story itself was rather
lackadaisical. There are punctuating moments of intensity (Antonio with
a baseball bat and Mike O’Shea’s terrible end both come to mind), but
the overlapping dialogue, depressing sets, and overall screenplay were
seriously wanting. Even so, the awesome performances by all of the cast
members pull this story up by its sagging bootstraps and give it a
positive rating.
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Image from A Guide To
Recognizing Your Saints
DVD cost: $20.99
Purchase:
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Film Review Stew
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Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
In the scene where Monty (Chazz
Palminteri) has a stroke, Antonio (Channing Tatum) throws a table
through the glass window of a door. This was improvised by Channing
Tatum, who got so wrapped up in the scene he nearly lost control. The
rest of the cast stayed in character and finished the scene, and the
director liked it so much he kept it as the final version.
Movie Quote: "You're
not going anywhere, Dito."
Other Actors/Actresses
from A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints
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