 |
| Images courtesy of MVD Visual |
Omertà is an Italian mob code of silence shared by the Mafia
criminal organizations throughout Southern Italy where one remains mute in the
face of questioning by authority figures.
A term and ideology that influenced novelist Mario Puzo’s The
Godfather, The Sicilian and later still Omertà (unrelated to
today’s film), the code also was the starting point for many mob related films
including two of Puzo’s aforementioned novels, Once Upon a Time in America and
most recently Goodfellas.
The idea that anyone from a microbudget faith-based filmmaking alliance would want to dabble in this world of drugs, violence, sex and foul language, despite such fare as Beckman, seems remote. But in 2011, in his writing-directing debut with his production company God’s Plan Productions, Craig Syracusa somehow figured out a way to make a Christian faith-based flick in the heart of the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn Italian mafia: Omertà – The Act of Silence and it stars Joe D’Onofrio who played young Tommy in Goodfellas too!
In a Brooklyn church former mobster Reno (former boxer Paul Malinaggi) enters and proceeds to spill his guts to a local priest (Joe Estevez) about his life in crime working for don Sal (Carmen Argenziano) with his partner in crime Tommy (Joseph D’Onofrio channeling Joe Pesci for all its worth). Told within the church office grounds in flashback, the film wades through the criminal dealings behind closed doors, thieveries and avarice as Reno tries to forgive himself for his criminal past. Mostly though, it’s a frank ripoff of Scorsese’s iconic Goodfellas, right down to D’Onofrio’s casting, the use of freeze frames and voiceover narration.
As a movie shot on digital video by Joe Hicks with a frankly keyboard synth sounding score by Andrew Markus, Ceazar Raekwon and Reason, Omertà – The Act of Silence looks and sounds fine if not unremarkable though if you crank up the volume you’ll start to notice shoddy ADR editing. The amateur cast is mostly fine though Joe D’Onofrio never outgrew the character of Tommy and the film winds up provoking viewers to ask themselves why the filmmakers didn’t contact Christopher Serrone for an unofficial Goodfellas crossover reunion.
Anyway, as expected, Craig Syracusa continued in the direction of generating faith-based no-budget films for the remainder of his career. As such, Omertà – The Act of Silence isn’t anything special despite the presence of D’Onofrio and rampant F-bombs dropped like no tomorrow in a Christian movie. Fans of the grimy low rent mob movie that doesn’t have the panache of Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese’s offerings will mostly enjoy the criminal dealings and unique perspective on the matter but don’t expect to see or hear anything you haven’t seen or heard already. Despite the efforts to make a crossover Christian mob crime drama, some bible viewers will be taken aback by the swearing and criminality while die-hards of the crime subgenre will be less than underwhelmed. All in all, a noble dud.
--Andrew Kotwicki
