State of Grace - 3 stars out of 5 stars

Sometimes we forget the Irish mob is in NYC as well as Boston and this 1990 film running long at 134 minutes reminds us of the fact there is a "Hell's Kitchen"in the city that the westees irish mob ran back in the day.I had to take 2 stars off because of the length and mixed up undercover cop vs roots theme.However the acting is as good as it gets in these crime films.Start with the maddening crazy Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery and cool bad Ed Harris     as Frankie Flannery ,his brother and crime boss and Sean Penn as Terry Noonan a boyhood friend of Jackie who went to Boston to become a cop and returns to infiltrate his youth gang,a very young John C. Reilly as Stevie McGuire a poor dumb chump and so many more.Truly the acting and cast rises the film more than the script.Worth your time if you like the current crop of irish mob movies like "the town."
Trailer URL follow the pix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrIEKS1PdfI