Plus, I knew I was expecting a lot of passion to be presented on screen as Ed Norton was playing the lead as well as being director. Norton is certainly the type of guy that puts their heart and soul into their projects and make sure it's as authentic as possible.
When seeing it, you certainly feel you have been to transported to 1950's New York. The smell of the streets, the noise of the cars and the general New York hustle and bustle. So in terms of the production design, it's of the highest quality.
As for the story, it's a pretty solid one and felt refreshing enough to be a pretty engaging three act structure. It might feel old fashioned for some. But for others, it's a nice re-visit to a genre long forgotten.
Ed Norton goes a good job as the lead. He gave himself a nice challenging addition to his character and feel it enhanced the character rather well, both physically and in his dialogue.
His chemistry with Gugu Mbatha-Raw was brought into the story at the right time and really helped the second half move along.
The support did a handsome job by helping the story and never feel they were phoning it in. So props to this high-calibre ensemble cast such as Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Willis and Ethan Suplee.
The negatives never really detracted my views on the positives. But there are some. The duration is rather lengthy at just under 2hrs 30mins as you do feel it in part. Also as mentioned before, I can see the old fashioned vibe about it might not work with some members of the audience.
But I managed to enjoy it more then I expected. I was fearing this would be a well-produced slog. In parts, I got exactly that. But overall, I feel the story is engaging enough to be a worthy watch and that is thanks to the performances and Norton's passion that you can feel as the film moves along.
Rating: 7/10
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