The Irish Mafia2023.

Directed by Patrick McKnight.
With Rob McCarthy, Pauline O’Driscoll, Baz Black, Lynseyann Mulvey, Liam Griffin and Eoin Duffy.

SYNOPSIS:

Irish gang boss Val becomes a priority target for the Dublin Garda after an armed robbery gains national coverage.

Valentino ‘Val’ Fagan (Rob McCarthy) is Dublin’s most feared man, as he runs all the criminal rackets. He is offered the opportunity to rise in the ranks of organized crime by two high bosses who ask Val to find a huge amount of money in a very short time, which prompts Val and his gang to commit an armed robbery. where they can raise more than five million euros. Trouble is, Val is a priority target for Garda detective Liz Delahunt (Pauline O’Driscoll) and her team, and once news of the theft is made public, Val begins to feel the heat on her back, prompting the already paranoid gangster to go totally beyond.

The first thing to notice about The Irish Mafia is that it’s superbly shot, opening with gorgeous aerial photography of Dublin at night, with the city lights bringing it to life and immediately setting the scene. During the opening, we also see Val and hear him give a voiceover about who he is and why he is in the position he is in; it’s not quite “As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster,” but it feels like that’s the kind of vibe that filmmakers go for.

And aiming high in a particular genre or style isn’t a bad thing, and after a few scenes of Val sniffing, tugging, and shoving her way through anyone or anything that gets in her way, you know pretty much everything you need to make the movie work. Rob McCarthy does an intense stare very well and gives enough menace and charm in his performance to make you think Val is someone who could command the respect he does.

However, a quick look at the execution time reveals that The Irish Mafia runs under 80 minutes, which doesn’t leave much time to tell a story of police chases, armed robberies, and gangster life in general, and so there’s an economy in the writing that means you have to accept certain things because you’re told them, rather than being shown. For example, Val’s right-hand man is Alan ‘Renno’ Reynolds (Liam Griffin), and we’re told they’ve done a lot of jobs together for several years, they’re best buddies, they do everything together, etc

But when things get heavy, Val asks her so-called best friend/lifelong partner for something, which causes Renno to have a crisis of conscience. On the surface, Renno’s thought process is understandable, at least from a non-gangster perspective, but given that we’ve just been told he’s been a hard-core criminal since he was a child – and we only have a few minutes of film left – his actions just don’t go well, making it all end a bit too quickly and conveniently to make sense.

It’s not enough to cut the film down too much – on the contrary, the action is brutal and thrilling – but given the short length and concise nature of the script The Irish Mafia feels more like an extended episode of a TV drama than a full movie. To flesh it out a bit, there’s a subplot about a rival criminal that really doesn’t go anywhere or add much, other than focusing on someone else for a few minutes, and when said character is no longer in the movie you realize that his presence was never really needed in the first place.

For all its faults, The Irish Mafia is solid enough to warrant a rental if violent dramas/thrillers are your thing, as it hits all the similar bases as the The rise of the infantryman-type films that keep being produced, but without the comic value of Terry Stone’s wig. If it had been half an hour longer with more character-based material, you might get more out of it as the character he’s trying to be, but as he is, The Irish Mafia is a little too undercooked to pack an effective punch at the intended level.

Scintillating Myth Rating – Movie ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★

Neighborhood Chris

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