La città della speranza

Unsettling and deeply emotional take on the average American city (big or small) by John Sayles ("Lone Star", "The Sunshine State"), who manages to mend an unlikely story of local politics, corruption, and mistrust among the citizens of a New Jersey town into one is remarkable. Among the many ordeals that occur here are is the fed up son (Vincent Spano) who wants to break out of the already arranged enviroment set up by his dishonest contractor father (Tony Lo Bianco) and one of the town's councilmen (Joe Morton) who looks into the case of two black kids who accuse a college professor of approaching them in a city park at night.

"City of Hope" has the emotional feel of a movie made by John Cassavetes or Martin Scorsese carefully mixed together. Plus, the camera work of Robert Richardson is great in showing the viewer the bleak outlook of an urban city and its inhabitants. And it showcases Sayles' best work our of the movies that he's made.

I've seen several John Sayles films and have been more or less impressed with all of them. This finely wrought and under appreciated little treasure though is probably his most complex and evocative. It's a formidable task tying together the loose ends of lives Sayles starts with into a coherent drama. All this done in the milieu of a corrupt city, tangled relationships and madness. Even the humour is bleak. There's nothing here that employs maudlin sentiment or melodrama, though. Somehow the tragedy is alleviated by a pervasive and dramatically ironic atmosphere of hope. It's in the pours and veins of this movie.. there's a human quality to it that's difficult to pin down but once detected transforms it into something special.

No, not the Patrick Swayze movie about India . . . that was *City of Joy*. This film, however, is also about one of the urban nightmares of our time-namely, New Jersey. A John Sayles tour-de-force (he wrote, directed, edited, and plays the most venal character), in which five story lines involving more than thirty characters seamlessly intertwine in a horrifying portrait of corruption, deceit, and cynicism in modern America. The ensemble cast is outstanding, and the screenplay rarely hits a false note.

Some people complain about the number of subplots:That's precisely what makes this movie so original and so endearing.This is a small microcosm of characters we follow during two hours without getting bored.Sometimes the director leaves two people talking for two other ones in the same sequence:this technique is an update of what William Wyler used to do notably in "detective story" (1952) and even "best years of our lives"(1946).The sequences are very short and are intertwined with skill;the cast is uniformly good,with Tony LoBianco as the stand-out.This is a very interesting movie ,focusing on such important subjects as responsibility,honesty and dignity.Really worthwhile.

"City of Hope": Let writer/director John Sayles pull you into one huge, HUGE, swirling Swirling SWIRLING mmmMMesSsmEEEesSSSMsmeSss of corruption. A big city has all the typical problems. Everyone operates realistically – i.e., you scratch my back, maybe I'll scratch yours. Right and wrong are lost concepts. Social and political survival tactics are practiced by the hunters and the hunted. No one is clean. Deals are made. Victims are collateral damage. It is a realistic story, with slightly enlarged dramatic characters. You won't laugh. (P.S. - See John Sayles film "The Secret of Roan Inish". It is nothing like "City of Hope" but it's amazing and wonderful.)