The much anticipated prequel movie based on hit HBO series The Sopranos disappoints big-time. There is not much meat in the story which focuses on Dickie Moltisanti, father of Christopher and the mentor and favorite uncle of the young Anthony Soprano.
The story revolves on Dickie Moltisanti’s rise in his father’s family, together with the Soprano brothers, Johnny and Junior, but that’s about it. The script revolves around Dickie and how he manages to become attracted to his father’s new wife, who is an Italian from their hometown of Andiano. It’s a convenient perchance that his father has a twin brother serving time for murder so even if Dickie ends up killing his father in a fit of rage while confronting him over a beating he gave his wife, which Dickie also witnessed with his mother, Ray Liotta, who plays the father lives on as the twin brother in the movie.
Dickie then takes on with his father’s widow, with her becoming his mistress, because his wife can’t bear children. Unfortunately, Dickie’s rise to the top of the family hierarchy burdens him with responsibilities which leaves him less time with his goomah and she ends up sleeping with a black man who runs the numbers rackets for Dickie in Newark’s black neighborhoods. Dickie ends up killing his mistress as well by drowning after she tells him the truth about her affair. So now, Dickie has on his conscience the murders of his father and stepmother cum mistress.
Even if this is supposed to be about how Tony grew up in the mid-60s, we only have few insights about how Tony became the psychologically dysfuctional mob boss played by James Gandolfini in The Sopranos. His son, plays him in the movie but he’s nowhere close the acting chops of his father who played Tony to a T.
Even Tony’s father takes a backseat to Dickie Moltisanti after he goes to jail for a four year stretch. We find out how Junior or Corrado is such a weakling compared to Johnny and Dickie who are the real deal as mobsters. We see the young Silvio, Pussy and Paulie as part of the Johnny and Dickie crew. The sex and the violence is dialed down several notches and it’s not anywhere near the level of any of The Sopranos episodes in its six seasons on HBO.
The script devotes too much time to the Newark riots of 1967 which was brought up in several Sopranos episodes as Tony was putting together the HUD housing scam with the New Jersey State Assemblyman, Zellman, who was also in his pocket. The film comes to an abrupt end when Dickie Moltisanti is shot to the head by an uknown assailant. Viewers find out that it was on Junior Soprano’s orders because Dickie laughed as he slipped on the snow-lined steps of the church as he was going out. Not really the underboss you’d imagine giving the order to whack a rival. But this does tie in how Johnny became the boss of the family until his death from emphysema as it was in The Sopranos.
The Many Saints of Newark is enteraining in parts but mostly boring. We find out that Tony actually has a high IQ and his Myers-Briggs test results show he has leadership qualities. The dysfunctional relationship he has with Livia, his mother, is established but other than the bust at the fair grounds, which was also shown as a flashback in The Sopranos, there’s nothing new about his relationship with Johnny.
The film doesn’t seem to know if it’s coming or going from where The Sopranos left off, just like how it ended without the fans knowing if Tony and his family were killed in the restaurant or if they made it out alive. James Gandolfini must be rolling in his grave.
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