This movie is of a violent nature and the themes explored may be disturbing to some sensibilities.

Spoilers and some minor details about movie revealed

The story is about a street entrepreneur, "Victor,"( played by John Leguizamo), who is one of five bosses of Bronx, NY. Lest you feel this new ground for the sweet-faced Leguizamo, may I direct your attention to William Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet, the modern-day application of Shakespeare's classic, featuring current box office star Leonardo DiCapprio.

Victor introduces us, with colorful descriptions, to his three partners and business using a narrative style. We quickly learn that his trade is in contraband and he's successful by the street standards. Five gangs or "entrepreneurs" run this particular market.
The narrative style, using Victor to explain his feelings, thoughts, and ideas about what is happening throughout the movie, continues, but is used to a lesser degree than when used to set up the story in the beginning of the movie. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of Victor's narration. He explained his motivations with a flair.

Vic is romantically attached to a special woman,Carmen(Delilah Cotto.) He describes her as smart enough for him. This romance becomes important to much of the story and we see that many of his decisions are influenced because of his love for her.

Under pressure from his girlfriend, and his own desire to "diversify," Victor retains a savvy investment banker, Jack (Peter Sarsgaard), that he met through his girlfriends girlfriend, Trish (the stunning Denise Richards.) He does this to escape his ties to the street.

In later scenes, he secures capital from his supplier, La Colombiana, played by the gracious Isabella Rossellini(Fearless) to make deeper investments. And, I should mention that this cameo part she played tickled me a little. She was quite convincing and believable as a drug lord, but I didn't know it was her until I wrote this review. This scene was actually one of the few scenes of relative levity in the whole movie.

Stipulations of this loan lead to the loss of his friend, James "Jimmy"(Vincent Laresca), in a particularly sad and heart-wrenching scene. It's about this time that Victor's life begins to catapult out of control as he made one bad decision after another. In a scene later in the movie, Victor stand atop of a skyscraper lamenting his life to this point.

The film comes to a climax in Miama, Florida which make a nice contrast to the scenes photographed in New York. The contrast exist only in aesthetics because violent action is forthcoming.

In the end, Victor does become a father and this is significant because as you watch the entire movie, you see this as an underlying motivation of Victor's. Unfortunately, his joy is short lived in the violent world he has chosen.

At the conclusion of the movie, we are caught up in a hodge-podge of Victor's racing thought. His thoughts fade to those of acceptance of his life. Reason, through conscience, speaks to him and confirms what he knew all along. That there was no way Victor was ever going to escape from his chosen lifestyle. Fate would bring him to the same conclusion, no matter what road he took.


This Author's Comments:

Although this story shows graphically violent scenes, it wasn't exactly rendered distastefully. Many of those scenes were done quickly and expressed to enhance the story.

I don't know if there was any particular message the movie was trying to get across, but movie tends to illustrate the ultimate futility of trying to break out of an underworld that deals in any form of "illegitimate" behavior without taking the right steps to do so. It also shows the consequences.

Victor tried to escape and he had the right intentions, but unfortunately, he didn't think out his options clearly and deliberately.

In the ending, he stated his awareness of his folly, but didn't clearly express what led to his breach of reason. Victor was the product of his environment to a large degree. There were many emotional factors that kept him locked in as well. As one character in the movie states, "He could've done the same amount of success in the suburbs" in a legitimate business.

This movie is an interesting study of the criminal mind and how negative thoughts and emotions keep that mind trapped leading the owner to a tragic demise.

The film was done pretty well for the most part. I expected more attention to the revenge sequence which basically lasted the whole of the last fifteen minutes. The characters were good and the chemistry between them dynamic enough. There was a fair amount of time devoted to developing these characters. The picture was filmed dark and probably would have looked just as good in monochrome, but I liked the look and mood it presented. The only "light" scene were of Miami and the scene with Rossellini.

Go see this one if you want a gritty urban tale with some action and romance, but mostly tragedy and vengeance.

Director: Franc Reyes
Writer: Franc Reyes
Producers: Michael Mailer, Daniel Bigel

Special Notice of Cinematographer: Kramer Morgenthau for outstanding camera work..

Note of Interest: Rueben Blades( "All The Pretty Horses") composed the music for this drama.
This Author's Comments:

Rated R for violence, sexual situations, pervasive language and drug content.

90 minutes.



Thank you for reading,

solo.

Recommended: Yes