God's Pocket - I really wanted to like this more

‘God’s Pocket’ is a difficult little film to watch.  It’s about a young man who gets killed at work.  His co-workers cover it up and it’s chalked up as ‘accidental.’ However, his family and a local reporter believe otherwise and look into it a little deeper.  It sounds good and, in some parts, it is.  However, I just kept waiting for it to ‘properly get going’ yet it never really did.

It seems perpetually seemed to be stuck in second gear, like an action movie that’s stuck in a box.  I know it was based on a book (and, not having read it, I really can’t compare the film to the source material) and I’m guessing the book isn’t exactly a rollercoaster epic of car chases and explosions.  Yet, I couldn’t help but think that if this basic story was given to someone else to put onto screen, he might have approached it very differently. 

There’s numerous opportunities for some really tense scenes.  I don’t just mean that if you stick in a few more car chases everything would be fine.  It was like it didn’t really know what it was trying to be.  There were definitely elements of gangster films in there, but, again, just when you were settling into a scene that wouldn’t look out of place in Goodfellas, whatever tension was building swiftly died down and you were left with many a plodding scene of people talking to one another in one dingy room after a next.  It seemed like too long to wait before the next spark of brilliance.

It’s certainly not all bad.  The cast elevates it over where it would be without them.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman is obviously the star and does his best with what he’s given.  Eddie Marsan is a little bit more underused than I would have liked to see him, but it’s John Turturro who puts in the best performance.

There are also some moments of darkly comic genius, making you think you’re watching a black-comedy crime caper, akin to something Guy Ritchie would produce.  Yet, once again, just when you’re enjoying laughing at the awful depressing predicament one of the characters has found himself in, the film-makers take their collective foot off the pedal and it all slows down once again.

Like I say, ‘God’s Pocket’ isn’t a bad film.  I didn’t hate it.  I just kept getting frustrated that something that could have been really quite good fun all the way through kept slowing down all too often and leaving me wondering whether there’s an option on the DVD menu to skip the dull scenes and go straight to the next fun chapter.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights