Predicts Boardwalk Empire

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE (1998)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Originally reviewed in 1998 *updated)

"With Friends Like These" is the umpteenth attempt at self-reflection on moviemaking, that is the attempt at understanding what motivates people to make movies and how it all comes down to backstabbing. It is an idea first brought to prominence in Robert Altman's "The Player." Nothing else has come close since.

The friends are a group of Hollywood actors who are lucky enough to find roles in any film or TV series. They are the character bit players, the ones that audiences are likely to forget. None of them may be happy to recede in the background of the spotlight, but what can they do? The only actor of the bunch who has been around long enough to do more than his fair share is Johnny (Robert Constanzo), a veteran player who has played more corrupt cops and hit men than anything else. Johnny gets a phone call one day that he is up for an audition to play Al Capone in a Martin Scorsese film! This could be his big break! Naturally, Scorsese and his agent (Beverly D'Angelo) remind Johnny to keep it hush-hush because otherwise, goombahs and Italian men from all over will get wind of the film and decide to audition as well. Let's say that Johnny's trusting friends, Dorian (Jon Teney), Steve (Adam Arkin) and Armand (David Straitharn), discover Johnny's secret and decide they all want a shot at the big time.

Some of this is fun to watch but sadly, too much goes a long way. It would have been enough to make a comedy about how desperate people are for fame and fortune, and for the insatiable need to get in the spotlight. But when the film concentrates on the men's wives and the supposed infidelities and jealousies, it becomes a Woody Allen film! Take away the inspired, inside information on how desperate these Scorsese aficionados are to get in to the master director's latest, and you are left with tedious Allenisms on relationships and marriage. Writer-director Philip F. Messina backs away from the filmmaking and backstabbing ideas that are probably the reason for his inspiration for the film in the first place.

"With Friends Like These" has some fun scenes and cute interactions, not to mention a stunning final scene with David Straitharn (the best actor of this bunch), but it is wholly half-hearted and contrived. It fails to deliver the potential of a real comedy about a Scorsese mob film. And that's that.

Footnote: Fascinatingly, years later, Martin Scorsese executive-produced and directed the pilot for the HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire." The pilot included the recurring character of Al Capone, played by Stephen Graham. I wonder how many actors auditioned for that part.