Gomorrah (Gomorra) Review

Focusing on five cross-generational crime stories in modern Italy, Gomorrah won the Grand Prix at 2008’s Cannes Film Festival and so inevitably comes with a considerable weight of expectation. Whereas Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, Babel) or Tarantino would weave their apparently unrelated tales into a cohesive whole as the disparate elements come together around a central event (a car crash, a coffee shop hold-up), Garrone’s film keeps his snapshots of criminal life, for the most part, separate. The narrative jumps between stories (impressionable young gun runners, old-guard gangsters etc.) with wilful abandon, giving the impression of documentary snapshots rather than a fully formed picture. A conspicuous lack of score for the majority of the film, and the inevitable ‘gritty’, hand-held camera work adds to this effect. These are down-and-dirty thugs, lacking any glamour associated with the gangster genre. The slum aesthetic (see Tsotsi, La Zona, City of God) has no place for Goodfellas’ tailored suits or mink coats, and it works.

The criminals themselves are refreshingly authentic, from respectable but unassuming businessmen types to a couple of teenagers who fancy themselves as Tony Montana. It’s made explicitly clear that the duo idolise this anti-hero, role playing with real (initially un-loaded) guns, but fail to understand the crass and despicable end to Tony’s American Dream. I hardly need to say, this leads to bloodshed. Commentary of this kind has been done far more subtly and effectively in the The Sopranos for one. Here it seems forced and clumsy. Hey, guess what? These kids have watched too many gangster movies and idolise fictional villains because they lack responsible role models. Yawn.

Despite its lengthy running time, the characters remain broad sketches defined largely by their status in the criminal empire. And this is of course partly the point – you’re nobody unless you’re involved in some form of nefarious activity. But in focusing on this to such an extent there’s a very hollow core to the film, with little commentary on the proceedings to fill the void. Some facile moralising as strands are tied up just doesn’t stick.

The ingredients are all in place; the sudden eruptions of violence, the intergenerational feuds, the painfully young kids pulled into a life of crime, even the González Iñárritu-borrowed Biblical title. But none of this has the streak of humanity that made City of God so mesmerising. For me Gomorrah lacks what ultimately makes any film a success, whether it’s the crudest comedy, a lavish period drama or a tasteless horror; the ability to move the audience.

Gomorrah is out in the UK on 10th October.