A-. Surprised by how good this was. It could have been a bit longer, while I did not mind the short running time, a lot of the plot points needed a bit more story. The ending is fantastic.

Great performances, strong dialogue, amazing fight scene, thin story, abrupt ending. A bit disappointing, but still good.

B

That sums it up perfectly for me too. Better than AHOV too.

Grade : A

It was great, almost excellent, but not quite the astounding film some made it out to be. First of all, the introduction is bad. Not just dull, which it was, but also irritating. The short/exciting first scene than segway into a slow moving plot train usually works for me, but here it was pushed so quickly at first, and than utterly stopped when they decided to slow it, that I was very annoyed. Also, I was not a fan of the double layered story telling with Naomi Waitts was more obnoxious than anything else. Not that Waits or anyone else in that story line was particularly bad, in fact I thought the uncle was very good, but it just felt very unnecessary. When it all came together at the end, it sorta worked, but still never really felt necessary or "worth-it". However this was the major link preventing this film from really being a "gangster" flick, so I'll give it credit for that.

Otherwise, everything was done pretty well. The cinematography was great, and while I thought the editing was a touch choppy, especially towards the beginning, bit worked by the end. The one major fight sequence seemed extremely realistic, and was both brutal and intense. Although the two parts where people necks were slit, seemed really fake to me. Overall though I really liked the scenes that were following the more gangster side of things, especially in their slow pace, which worked on the already engaging material.

Viggo mortensen was, of course terrific. He still didn't come close to earning the oscar he didn't win, but he was deffinitely worthy of the nomination. His tough guy exterior and yet shockingly deep expression was powerful and enthralling. Definitely his best work that I've seen.

Overall, a very good film. Just not quite a knockout. It was pretty engaging and fascinating, especially in the surprising last fifteen minutes, but it definitely took to long getting there, despite the fact that it had a brief running time of 105 minutes. I blame this sluggish effect on the unnecessary side story, but it didn't come close to ruining the film.
8.5/10

7/10.