‘The Irishman’ Review: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci Team Up For One Last Epic Mob Movie

The first thing Martin Scorsese shows us in The Irishman—which had its world premiere Friday morning at New York Film Festival—is a bunch of old guys. That’s fitting, considering all major parties involved in making this film in their 70s in real life. But make no mistake, Scorsese and his all-star cast—Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci—are still powerhouses despite their advanced age, and The Irishman reflects that. With precision, style, and a surprising amount of humor, it’s the ultimate old-man movie — and I don’t mean that as a diss. If you’re the kind of wiseguy that Scorsese speaks to so eloquently, you’ll want to watch it again and again (despite the 3 and-a-half hour runtime).

Here’s where I confess that I am not that kind of wiseguy. Mob movies aren’t my thing. I’m squeamish about violence, I’m touchy about the treatment of women (more on that later), and I’m of a generation that’s too young to remember union leader Jimmy Hoffa (something De Niro’s character laments several times). I think it speaks to The Irishman‘s strength, therefore, that I enjoyed it despite this acknowledged divide.

The Irishman opens with an 82-year-old Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (De Niro) biding his time in an assisted-living home, telling a story about a road trip he took in 1975 with his friend Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and their wives, Irene (Stephanie Kurtzuba) and Carrie (Kathrine Narducci). You get the sense he’s talking to someone specific, not just providing voiceover for the audience. That’s likely because the script—written by Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian—is based on I Heard You Paint Houses, a 2004 as-told-to memoir written by Charles Brandt via interviews with Sheeran.

Here’s the gist of the main plot: Frank meets mob boss Russell Bufalino in the 1950s and, after Russell’s lawyer cousin Bill (Ray Romano) gets him off on a charge, falls into a life of crime. He meets a cast of characters played by Scorsese favorites like Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, and Stephen Graham. A few fun mafia hijinks later—the fact that De Niro deposits his gun in the designated gun-dropping spot in the river every time is particularly hilarious—Frank gets a fateful call from union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino), President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (who eventually would “disappear” in 1975, never to be seen again). Hoffa tells Frank he hears he “paints houses,” and Frank replies that he does, and does his “own carpentry work, too.” Translation: He shoots people and sees the blood splatter on the wall, and then “makes the coffin,” or takes care of the bodies.

In the ’60s, Hoffa, Russ, and Frank get caught up in politics. Hoffa despises the Kennedys, and even the level-headed Frank is miffed when, as Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy cracks down on the very mafia that The Irishman posits helped get his brother elected president. Much, much more happens, but I’ll spare you the rest of the summary, except to say this: The Irishman uses every second of its three-and-a-half hour running time to paint an expansive panorama, and it must be seen to be appreciated.

The much-talked-about de-aging effect—a new camera-capture and software technology developed by Industrial Light & Magic specifically for this film—is distracting at first. The change in De Niro’s eye color from brown to blue—presumably to make him look more Irish—is especially unsettling. But after the first hour, you just go with it, in part thanks to De Niro’s irresistible charm. (He’s still got it!) Pacino delivers lots of laughs, and Pesci a rare, internal performance.

As to the question of awards buzz: From my view, Netflix has a strong chance of a Best Picture nomination for The Irishman, which is good news considering the streaming service spent a reported $160 million just to produce the film (and that’s before marketing costs!). I’m not sure it will come as close to winning as last year’s Roma; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood certainly comes to mind as a star-studded film appealing to a very similar audience.  But Pacino’s manically hilarious (but ultimately tragic) performance could certainly earn him the Best Supporting Actor win. Still, it’s early, and there are lots of great films and performances to contend with this awards season.

The Irishman is both a funny, fast-paced gangster film and a slow-moving reflection on aging, mortality, and the passage of time. I laughed much more than I expected to, and, despite his horrible crimes, I did sympathize with Frank as a lonely old man at the end of his life. That said, the film was still confusing despite its elongated running time; I found it difficult to keep track of who was blowing up whom, and why. Finally, at the risk of receiving angry DMs, on the issue of gender: It’s inconceivable that the women of the film have as small a part as they do, considering that Frank’s daughter, Peggy, is a key emotional plot point of the story. Played by Lucy Gallina as a child and Anna Paquin as an adult, Peggy disapproved her father’s life of crime ever since she was a young girl and witnessed him stomping on a shop owner’s hand. When Frank is 82, she hasn’t spoken to him in over 20 years and turns him away one last time. It’s a pivotal moment, and yet Peggy has just one significant line of dialogue in three-and-a-half hours of film. Good filmmaking isn’t about counting lines of dialogue, of course, but if you want an emotional moment between a father and daughter to pay off, you must invest more than one line for the character on the other side of the relationship.

Nonetheless, with The Irishman, Scorsese delivered exactly the kind of mob movie his fans wanted to see. If you’re already counting down the days until you can see this film in the theater, you’re not going to be disappointed.

The Irishman will open in select theaters on November 1 before hitting Netflix globally on November 27.