The Florentine

This is a fantastic character driven film, with a great, slightly quirky script, some funny one liners and an excellent cast. Standing out among the uniformly excellent performances are the the great Chris Penn (brilliant as always), Michael Madsen, Tom Sizemore and James Belushi (yes, you did read that right; James Belushi).The film follows a group of friends in the period leading up to a wedding and details how this event impacts on their lives. It's that simple but extremely effective. To say much more about individul story lines would give away too much plot, suffice to say that each character's story is interesting, different and watchable, there are no fillers here! The soundtrack, which features among others, Bruce Springsteen, is superb and really suits the film; one of the best matches of film and music I've heard. This is one of my favourite films and one that bears repeated viewings.

I found the movie itself to be extremely boring. I've seen the movie two times and I really can't tell you what it's about. In summary, it's about a bunch of guys just hanging out.

What kept me captivated was the use of my town for the filming of the movie. When the production crew was in town filming, it definitely was a big to-do. I was somewhat disappointed that the movie never made it to the theatre's in this country.

Most of the movie was filmed in Easton, PA. The interior of the bar is Mother's Tavern in Centre Square, Easton. The exterior of the bar is the Mount Vernon Ale House, at 6th and Northampton St., Easton, PA. The neighborhood scenes were filmed in South Side Bethlehem, PA and the industrial scenes were filmed at the Bethlehem Steel facility.

From a play, THE FLORENTINE is a look at several friends whiling away their lives in an old Pennsylvania steel town. They are slowly preparing for the marriage of the sister (Virginia Madsen) of the local barkeep (Michael Madsen). Among the cast, who spend most of their time in the local bar, called The Florentine, are Hal Holbrook as a retiree, Luke Perry as a naif, Chris Penn as the local tough and Tom Sizemore as a newly minted parolee. Jim Belushi has a spot as a con man and Burt Young also has a small role as a loanshark. Madsen's character is the tie that binds this motley crew. Other females in the cast include Jill Hennessey and Mary Stuart Masterson, both of whom are terrific, although this is really a guys' movie. A great cast, a great play and a wonderful movie that expands the play just enough to keep us riveted.

I have seen the rough cut of this picture and it is worth checking out. There is some fine writing by Damien Gray and Tom Benson ably handled by a good cast. Problem one, they all look too fat and too old for the parts. Problem two, the direction is merely competent. Problem three, no ending. it just kind of fizzles out. Hopefully this was fixed in the final edit. Look for good things in the future from the writers.

If you like rock solid acting and don't mind slow moving plots, then, this one's for you. The cast is TOP NOTCH, with fine acting and writing (interesting characters and storyline), and fine visuals. The problem is, THE OPENING. The last thing you wanna do is bore an audience for the first twenty minutes. THE FLORENTINE does this BRILLIANTLY. With a little editing, a little TLC, this movie could be first class.