Ray: If I do something wrong, it's because God didn't give me the grace to do what's right. If this world stinks, it's his fault. I'm only working with what I've been given. "One family, one murder, too many lies."What makes The Funeral a better than average gangster film is solid performances from underrated actors
like Chris Penn and Vincent Gallo, and strong performances from its bigger names, Christopher Walken and Benicio Del Toro. The Funeral winds up being a really well made and acted film, even if it didn't become a great movie. The story isn't anything we haven't seen before, but the superb acting makes it feel like you are watching this storyline for the first time.What The Funeral does do well is make its case for more of a family drama then a true gangster film. Although it's still a gangster film, as it gets going it relies more and more on the family drama and less and less on he actual ins and outs of the business. It's actually a pretty slow moving drama for most of the runtime and then within the last 10 minutes, the plot goes crazy and leaves the viewer with a weird feeling. I can't say I was at all surprised by the ending, but watching happen that quickly was a surprise. The ending turns out to be cool because director Abel Ferrera didn't feel the need to add melodrama or draw it out, but it also feels rushed for this same reason.Either way I thoroughly enjoyed The Funeral despite its structural problems. There wasn't a bad performance from the cast and that ends up being enough to win me over on this one.
September 25, 2011
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