Romance and Cigarettes

Romance and Cigarettes ***

Directed by John Turturro
Written by John Turturro

Starring:
James Gandolfini as Nick Murder
Susan Sarandon as Kitty
Kate Winslet as Tula
Steve Buscemi as Angelo
Bobby Cannavale as Fryburg
Mandy Moore as Baby
Mary-Louise Parker as Constance
Aida Turturro as Rosebud
Christopher Walken as Cousin Bo
Barbara Sukowa as Gracie
Elaine Stritch as Nick's Mother
Eddie Izzard as Gene Vincent
Amy Sedaris as Frances

106 Minutes(Rated R for sexual content including some strong dialogue, and language. )
--------------------------------------------------------------
It actually feels kind of weird finally seeing and writing the review for John Turturro's delayed-for-so-long-that-its-been-forgotten film "Romance and Cigarettes." I saw the poster for this in a theatre nearly two years ago, and since then an epic story of legal debates and bankruptcy has stopped the film from coming out. Finally, ticked off and annoyed, Turturro has decided to finance the release himself, and you can now see it at the Film Forum in New York, up until October 2nd. At that point, maybe another theatre will pick it up. We'll see.

What we get is a rather messy, but well acted and sometimes very sweet, little movie-a different kind of musical as you'll see. We star James Gandolfini as Nick Murder, a New York construction worker that is cheating on his wife Kitty, with Tula-a natural redhead played by Kate Winslet, who gets the chance to do her actual accent for a change. His wife and three daughters all begin to give him the shun, and Nick ends up discovering that there is much more to life than sex, and maybe this little fling is nothing more than a mid-life crisis.

It's an extremely loose story, and at times you'll wonder why and what you are even watching. The first half plays like a rather campy and cheesy musical-with no original numbers and all cover songs-at times the actors don't even look like they are singing, and I learned later that Susan Sarandon was actually dubbed. We have comedy performances by Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken who is doing something other than deadpan for a change-even though one could argue that "Hairspray" was quite lively, but this was made two years before that was even released. The second half turns more into a romantic drama, and I think this is where the film finds it true tone. The last twenty minutes of this movie are rather heartbreaking and poignant and even beautiful in a way, and the movie ends on a real strong note, even though its a bit of a mess getting there. At times I wondered what the real point of all this was, but then it dawned on me that this was a movie about finding the love you already knew you had, and not screwing it up.

So "Romance and Cigarettes" is a bit of a mess, screenplay wise. I think Turturro himself was confused about what kind of genre he wanted, and so he tried to have it all. But it does make the movie suffer to an extent, even though some of the jokes are rather fun-and Kate Winslet is great as the crude mistress-from the first line its nothing but sex joke after sex joke with her, tastefully done and even very funny. It's just the type of girl she is. Gandolfini does a real good job, and any movie where he sings, dances, gets circumcised, and does a dream sequence where he is getting whipped by his daughter, and yet still manage to appear the tough guy is alright in my book. And Mary Louise Parker is almost the epitome of cool as one of Nick's freeloading musician daughters. "Romance and Cigarettes" is a mess, but it's an entertaining and rather sweet mess. Maybe during the delay there could have been some revisions, but its a decent movie to see, and the wait has finally ended.