Retro Film Review: Saints and Sinners (1994)

Willingness to break unwritten rules of modern Hollywood could be mixed blessing for film makers. Their work is often remembered not by their own merit but by some otherwise insignificant details that stuck in viewers' memory. One of those films remembered for the wrong reasons is Saints and Sinners, 1996 crime drama written and directed by Paul Mones.

Protagonists of the film are Pooch (played by Damian Chapa) and Big Boy (played by Scott Plank), two best childhood friends who reunite after many years. For Big Boy, Pooch's return to the neighbourhood is a godsend - only the friend like Pooch can be trustworthy enough to help him achieve ambitious goal of becoming local crime lord. Unfortunately, Big Boy doesn't know that Pooch's arrival was anything but accident - Pooch used to be policeman and after being charged for corruption he didn't have any other choice but to work as an informer within Big Boy's gang. While Pooch struggles between loyalty and betrayal, his relationship is further tested with an arrival of Eva (played by Jennifer Rubin), beautiful woman in whom both men fall in love.

Plot of Saints and Sinners is in many ways similar to Phil Joanou's State of Grace. But the similarities end with that; Paul Mones' film is made with much lower budget and it is much shorter. Consequently, it is less pretentious and less boring. The acting is very good - Damian Chapa is quite convincing as a tortured soul, while Jennifer Rubins adds another portrait to her impressive gallery of quirky or semi-psychotic characters. William Atherton is also very impressive as machiavelistic crime-fighter, reminding the audience of the similar role in TV film Broken Trust. Paul Mones directs the movie with a lot of grittiness, aided by very effective jazz score by Tom Varner and Steven Miller. The ending is somewhat unusual for this sort of films, but this is not the only thing in which Mones strays from Hollywood conventions. The love triangle subplot in Saints and Sinners is very neatly handled in a scene that features three-way quite different from those we are accustomed to see in Hollywood films. That scene was probably necessary, but it did few favours for the film in general. Because of that, people are more likely to remember Saints and Sinners as "that movie with a girl and two guys" instead of a neat little gangster flick, as they should be.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 2nd 2002)

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