It begins with three teens smashing a car window; it ends 15 years and 150 bloody minutes later with everyone betrayed, banged up or dead. Michele Placido’s Mafia epic follows Italy’s transition from ’70s terrorism to ’90s capitalism as Libanese (Pierfrancesco Favino) and his mates massacre their way up Rome’s Mafia hierarchy. Placido shoves brutal violence and backstabbing intrigue in yer face, while TV news reports pad out the backdrop (Red Brigade bombs, the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, Italy’s 1982 World Cup triumph). There’s no denying Romanzo Criminale’s naked ambition, its multi-strand narrative living up to its title (‘Crime Novel’). For all its polish, though, it’s strangely detached; the character-dwarfing sprawl reduces its protagonists to expendable pawns on the chessboard of history.
Romanzo Criminale review
Why you can trust GamesRadar+
More info
Available platforms | Movie |
Less
Latest
What a horrible night to have a curse: Survival action-RPG V Rising finally secures the ultimate Vampiric crossover with Castlevania content coming in May
A "critical problem" led to one of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's wildest building tools - the devs didn't want you to spill your soup
First big Enshrouded update gives the survival RPG new dungeons so tough the devs advise against soloing them, and let's not forget the Hobbit doors either
See comments