5/10

Great acting in a movie can often save it. The performances given by these actors have saved some films from becoming some of the worst of the year. Unfortunatly, the same can’t be said for God’s Pocket. I am thankful that i saw this film on Pay Per View and not at the theater because i would’ve been upset if i wasted gas mileage on this stink. Phillip Seymour Hoffman stars and produces in his 2nd to last film before his death. He plays a man who is dating a mother (Christina Hendricks) who is at her wits end with life. They receive some bad news when they find out that their son has been killed while working. His death is covered up as just an accident by his co-workers, but his Mom knows more is at play. There are a lot of problems with this film that i will try to address. The characters are so unlikable and it gives us no one to get behind. Christina Hendricks is a loose cannon that cheats on her husband, John Turtoro is a loser who is always borrowing and losing money from his friends, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is decent, but he is given such a bland role that he can never lift it to a decent portrayal. It’s like the writers took no time what so ever to invest some of the 88 minute run time into making these characters more sympathetic. That’s another problem i have with the film, it’s too short. This could be the main reason for all of the problems i will mention in this review. With 20 more minutes of screen time, the story could be better developed and some of the terribly edited shots can offer more clarity with a long cut. The editing is seriously so awful that i had to rewind what i was watching a couple times just to grasp what happened. The tone of the movie took a page from last year’s Out of the Furnace by trying to show this just outside Philadelphia town for the hard working but unintelligent kind that roam it’s streets. Richard Jenkins is cast as the city’s newspaper editor. He writes about the city and it’s negatives through no anger from the people living there. They treat him as a celebrity even though he trashes them for thousands to read. It’s not until the end of the movie do these people catch on and give him what he deserves. But once again, the editing is so terrible that we aren’t given an answer as to what his fate is. I usually love Richard Jenkins, but this movie figured out a way to make me even hate him. I appreciate a sleeze ball character as much as anyone, but his character is crude for no reason at all. He doesn’t care who he steps on because he can. He is left to stew in an alcoholic slumber for most of his scenes. For the first 45 minutes, his storyline is treated as a side storyline with as little to do as any extra roaming the set. This story arc as well as another with John Turtoro feel like they are examples of ideas being thrown against a wall that don’t stick with the rest of the movie. The storyline with the son dying is dark and should be treated as a serious manner, but it’s the other stories that get in the way and confuse what kind of film we are watching. Is it dark comedy? or is it a crime mystery? We never really figure it out. SPOILER ALERT – The people who kill the son are never brought to justice or really presented anything more than just simple questioning. The movie ends this way and we are supposed to be OK with it. Hoffman is cheated on and losing thousands of dollars for the death of his girlfriend’s son and we are supposed to be OK with it. The movie comes in and out and makes us feel like we wasted 88 minutes of our life………and we are supposed to be OK with it. In the end, God’s Pocket is an awkward blend of comedy and tragedy in a movie that doesn’t do either with enough conviction. Pass on this one.