The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men: City Hall

”’Menschkeit,’ you know... something between men... it's about honor, and character... untranslatable.” Mayor John Pappas

Director Howard Becker (Sea of Love) peels back the shiny foil wrapper and shows us the seamy underbelly of NYC politics in City Hall, an ambitious film that can’t seem to decide whether it is a serious drama or an action film. Alas, it falls short in both genres.

Part of the difficulty is that it has only a halfhearted story although the lack of direction doesn’t help any. I’ve seen weak stories overcome by bravura directorial work, but this ain’t one of them. Starting out with a solid political machine running the Big Apple, a small, apparently isolated incident turns out to be enough to upset the applecart and put everybody’s plans in the dumpster but good.

The acting is one of the bright points in the otherwise bleak landscape of City Hall. Veteran actor Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman, Scarface) does a bang up job as Hizzoner, the Mayor of New York. Quid pro quo or tit for tat, whichever you prefer, a weak character is inserted to water down the pace. John Cusack plays the Deputy Mayor, a sort of reverse carpetbagger from Ferriday, Loosiana, given to quoting dead white guy Huey Long. Cusack’s performance while not irritating, is a pedestrian job compared to some I have seen like The Grifters, where he was riveting. The poorly written screenplay transforms Cusack’s character from an insipidly milquetoast political hack like James Carville to a super sleuth action hero by the middle of the film. Unh uh, sorry, not buying!

Similarly, Bridget Fonda is wasted in a tacked on part probably added to balance the almost entirely masculine cast. She becomes Robin to Cusack’s Batman. Again, unh uh. Balancing these weakly written characters we have a couple of marvelous name actors doing cameos, Danny Aiello as a party boss acting as a switchboard for favors going out and graft coming in; Anthony Franciosa, as a mobster who may have more to do with running NYC than meets the eye; and Martin Landau, as a judge who may not be as squeaky clean as he wants to appear.

So, to sum up, a weak, predictable story with a few good characterizations by “name” actors and a few not so great performances by other “name” actors. Al Pacino fans will of course cheer when he does one of his little rants, however, he is not the center of attraction, John Cusack is. And John Cusack is saddled with a poorly realized part that even he can’t resolve in an interesting way. Of course, Aiello and Franciosa are hard to beat in their five minutes or so each, however when we see a two-hour film, half an hour or so of compelling movie and about three times as much chaff does not a wonderful viewing experience make.

The Warner Bros. DVD is presented in 1.85: 1 theatrical format and is well done in terms of video and sound. Three language options are available as well as subtitles in about six or seven languages, including English. You political thriller fans will probably forgive a lot in this film but most viewers will see this as a pretty sorry effort given the high octane talent.

See a good movie tonight. Thanks for reading!