I remember when I saw the trailer for The Alto Knights: the movie promised Robert De Niro playing dual roles as both real-life mobsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Sure, all the large letters on the screen surrounding one De Niro as he walked through a fancy restaurant to sit at a booth with another one. The lettering and the set seemed to do two things for me. First, it made De Niro look like a very physically small man. Now, I have no idea how tall he is, but it didn’t help much. Second, it made me think the whole thing was just a bad gimmick where De Niro might be sleepwalking through another mob movie. De Niro, like a lot of actors of his generation who have been dubbed “legendary” seems to mostly be phoning in a lot of roles for the money unless he’s working with Martin Scorsese.
Then I noticed the director was Barry Levinson, and I thought, well, if it’s a gimmick, at least it’s a gimmick with a talented director. Plus, the screenplay was by Nicholas Pileggi, and he wrote Goodfellas, and that means this might be good.
The movie opens with an attempt on the life of Frank Costello (De Niro). Though shot in the head in his apartment building’s lobby, the bullet only grazes his skull, and he survives. As it is, Frank, also the movie’s narrator, knows full well who tried to kill him: his childhood friend Vito Genovese (also De Niro). However, Frank isn’t interested in pressing charges or anything along those lines. He even tells the police he didn’t see who did it. See, Frank is the Boss of Bosses, and he has a way of doing things that relies on doing things more through money and negotiation. He doesn’t have any bodyguards or even carry a gun, and the general public, if they know who he is at all, think he’s a professional gambler and philanthropist, someone who’s been married to his wife Bobbie (Debra Messing) for thirty+ years and is looking to retire.
Vito is the opposite of that. He used to be a boss, but he had to flee the country for a couple years to beat a murder rap, and while hiding out in Italy, World War II broke out and made it harder for him to return. Frank, watching over his criminal empire, learned the new way of doing things and rose through the ranks. Vito is suspicious of just about everyone, more inclined towards violence and jealousy. Frank wants to settle everything peacefully, live by a code of his own, and then get out of this life to enjoy his last few years with Bobbie. Everything he does seems to make Vito more suspicious while Frank just knows Vito’s refusal to change with the times is going to get him busted for selling narcotics. Something has gotta give. Can Frank get out of this life without having someone killed?
Honestly, this one is the sort of movie where everything probably seemed like a good idea on paper, but in execution, it was just kinda so-so. I found it more listless than anything else. De Niro did give the two characters somewhat distinctive personalities, and even with De Niro’s speaking in what sounds like a slightly higher pitch as Vito, they still both seem like Robert De Niro playing two characters that aren’t twin brothers or anything. I never had trouble telling them apart or anything, but for the life of me, I wasn’t sure why they didn’t just hire two actors.
But the rest of the movie is mostly just there. It never struck me as bad. It just felt hollow and empty, something that didn’t have anything special or distinct to say as a movie, so it just went with the dual-role gimmick. I can give De Niro some credit for trying something new when he seems to mostly make movies for the paycheck, but there just isn’t enough here to really say this movie is worth seeing in the theater, but it might make for a decent distraction to watch at home. About all I will say is the special effects, for the few times both of De Niro’s characters appear in the same shot, actually worked pretty well. Beyond that, well, it’s a very generic mob movie.
Grade: C
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