"Romance and Cigarettes"
Nick (played by James ‘Tony Soprano’ Gandolfini) has anything but an easy life. Living together with a wife and three daughters doesn’t always run as smoothly. Next thing that happens, Kitty (played by the charming Susan Sarandon) finds a love letter Nick wrote to another woman. The poor labourer is ultimately having a secret relationship with the trash-talking Tula (Kate Winslet).
When I watched Romance and Cigarettes, I really found that it does contain resemblances with an in-between-version of The Sopranos. The stereotypicalness can be really bothering for probably most viewers, although it could have its charm. Not only the setting (New York Suburbia), but also the cast seemed very familiar (next to Tony Soprano, also Tony’s sister Aida Turturro and a guest-role of Steve Buscemi appear in this film).
But pretty soon I did realise that I am watching the bizarre dreamworld in this movie, which is John Turturro’s thing. The characteristic actor wrote this crazy musical (and you have to love musicals like with that factor, remember recent musicals like Moulin Rouge! and Southpark The Movie) on the set of the movie Barton Fink, and that’s noticeable:
Bright, colourful characters? Yep! Bizarre situations? Present! Odd humour? Check! And above that, the spicey roles in this movie are even prepared to burst out into great songs! (songs like Delilah, by Tom Jones, and It’s a Man’s World by James Brown are part of Romance and Cigarettes’ themeplay)
Or even better, coming out of nowhere, they might start of with a dance (Christopher Walken steals the show quite often in this film as the uncle who’s consumed by the power of love).
Most people that’ll watch this, and are in the right athmosphere of a feel-good movie, will probably feel like moving to the rythm, and humming a song or two. Although there is a melodramatic ending to this festivity, mood swings are part of ordinary life, and a part of this swinging flick.
7/10