A Brooklyn State of Mind

Baby-faced Vincent Spano (looking hardly a day older than he did in John Sayles' 1983 film Baby It's You) plays Al Spanco, a part-time drummer, full-time Italian who does odd (illegal) jobs for his Mafia mini-boss "Uncle" Danny (Danny Aiello), who took the kid under his racket-protective wing after his father was gunned down when Al was a boy. When Gabriela (Maria Grazia Cucinotta, the beauty from Il Postino, here looking rather gaunt) moves into an apartment above Danny's, the pair fall into a tiresome sitcom-level loves-me-loves-me-not artificial relationship, while Gabriela works on a documentary about Brooklynites. For the first two-thirds of the film, the audience knows almost nothing about the mystery woman Gabriela, which makes the final third (wherein all is revealed) a little unfair, not to mention unbelievable. (In one scene, Al and Gabriela re-visit the Brooklyn bakery where Danny's father was shot and everything has been left exactly as it was 25 years ago. What? Not only does this make no economic sense, it's Brooklyn not Peoria; street-level empty buildings don't go untouched for a quarter century). Winner of the Best Feature award at the New York International Film & Video Festival, writer/director Frank Rainone's venture into Scorsese/Tarrantino territory is worth watching only for another note-perfect performance by Danny Aiello. Very optional. (R. Pitman)