The Irishman - Review - Cristina Găvăneanu

“The Irishman” was also titled onscreen as “I heard you paint houses” and is an American epic crime film which was directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book “I heard you paint houses” by Charles Brandt. Among others, it stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

The film follows Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a truck driver who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russel Bufalino (Peschi) and his crime family, including his time working for the powerful Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).

For me, the most interesting part began in the second half of the movie, along with the confession made by Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, who claimed to be the one that murdered Jimmy Hoffa, the man who was once his boss. I believe that this harsh confession shows the viewers the complexity of the main character.

Even if the film is quite entertaining and amusing, I think it is also not so easy to watch, considering the fact that there are a lot of violent scenes which are built in such a manner that they don’t seem wrong at all.

Close to the end, the scenes no longer involve violence. Frank is now pictured as being vulnerable, even if he doesn’t want this to be seen by others. He accepts his faith, heartbroken that what he hard done made his family fall apart. His daughters cannot forgive him and everyone he was ever associated with is now dead. He starts confessing to a priest, praying with him, trying to find some comfort. He even wants to choose a coffin for himself – he knows that his time is almost over. The last scene shows him in what seems to be a retirement house. It’s almost Christmas; for others it is the most wonderful time of the year… but not for him. He is alone. The priest visits him and tells him he will come again after Christmas, but Frank acts as if he were sure there would be no 'next time.' He tells the priest to leave the door a bit open when he leaves because he likes it like this. He is so lonely that he probably feels better seeing other people walk by his room. And that’s it. The “Irishman” did a lot of terrible things and caused a lot of trouble and suffering to his family and it looks like he finally accepted the gravity of his acts and the fact that they cannot be erased from the memory of his loved ones.

For me, this film was pretty intense. It showed me how easy it is for those involved with the mafia to kill people and to make others suffer, only because they did something that interfered with their businesses. Also, the plot created a panoramic view of the way the actions of those playing this game can impact their families.

In my opinion, it is quite challenging to follow the plot line because there are a lot of characters showing up and in case you don’t pay attention for a few minutes, you will miss a lot of important events and discussions. Don’t watch it if you know you won’t have enough patience to stay in front of the screen for three hours and a half. If you are patient enough and you can manage to watch the entire movie, I promise you won’t be disappointed!