10th & Wolf is yet another movie with a mob-based story. As a fan of the genre, I was happy to find this one, even though I'd never heard of it before. With a decent cast, and what sounded like a decent premise, I curled up with my popcorn and expected greatness. Sadly, I didn't get "greatness", I got "Just OK".

10th & Wolf is a street corner in Philadelphia. Brothers Tommy (James Marsden), Vincent (Brad Renfro) and their cousin Joey (Giovanni Ribisi) grew up on that corner. With their fathers hip-deep in the Philadelphia mob, the boys grew up seeing plenty of the bad side of life. While Vincent and Joey are content with the lives that were handed to them, Tommy wants out. He joins the marines and vows never to be let the mob get a hold of him.

But things go wrong and Tommy finds himself in the brig facing some very serious charges. In walks FBI agents Horvath and Thornton (Brian Dennehy and Leo Rossi). They have a deal for Tommy. They'll make the charges disappear if he agrees to work with them, undercover, to take down Philadelphia's drug lord, Reggio (Francesco Salvi). Tommy doesn't want to take the deal, he'd rather pay for his mistakes than get dragged back into his old lifestyle. But the FBI agents know how to turn him... It seems they have some evidence on Vincent and Joey that they're willing to hold over Tommy's head. Thus, to save his brother and cousin, Tommy agrees to the deal.

What follows next is some of the most graphic violence I've ever seen in a movie. I'm talking about scenes that made me cringe, and I'm fairly immune to this stuff. That's my first warning about this movie. Really, unless you're a fan of this genre, the violence is going to be quite off-putting.

There's also some fairly poor acting, from James Marsden. I know Tommy is a conflicted man. But his face tends to look more confused (think deer caught in headlight) than anything. I found his expressions to be very distracting, as they didn't seem to match what the character should have been feeling at the time.

The role of brother Vincent is a strange one. I'm not sure whether the actor (Renfro) messed up, or if the writing is to blame. But the character is completely inconsistent. In some scenes Vincent is portrayed as "slow". You get the feeling he's maybe learning disabled, although they never say. The way he speaks, and fails to understand simple concepts leads me to believe he's in some way handicapped. Yet in other scenes, his speech is "normal" and his ability to reason seems to be much closer to normal.

On the other hand, Ribisi (who I always liked) does an unbelievable job. Cold-hearted cousin Joey is one of those guys who seems to be just hanging on to his sanity, someone who's like a bomb and everyone's just waiting for the timer to go off. As the movie goes on, and Joey sinks more and more into the depth of this insanity, his whole look and mannerisms change. I was extremely impressed with Ribisi, and look forward to seeing him play more roles like this one.

Then there are the cameos. Normally cameos are fun. But in this movie they are a real waste of acting talent. Dennis Hopper has a teeny, tiny role, as family friend Matty. But as small as Hopper's role is, it's huge compared to the other two cameos. Tommy Lee is on the screen for less time that it takes to blink. And a barely recognizable Val Kilmer (sporting long dark hair and a beard) has exactly one scene that has absolutely nothing to do with the main story. When cameos are tossed into a movie this way, it's a total waste as far as I'm concerned. Clearly it was simply a way to get a few "big names" into the cast list. But in this case, they did nothing for the movie except provide a distraction.

Rounding out the cast, we have Lesley Ann Warren as Joey's beaten-down mother. And Piper Perabo as Brandy, the baretender/potential love interest for Tommy. Both women do reasonable well in their roles.

The story, itself, is pretty good and comes to a reasonable conclusion. It's definitely not one of those "all things turn out perfectly" endings. But that's OK. In this genre, I would expect there to be some very intense and disturbing scenes, showing that bad things happen to people who get into things they should keep away from.

In the end, I would only recommend this movie for those who are real fans of the mobster genre. You'll have to put up with some extreme violence, some bad acting, and a very inconsistent character, but the story is interesting, and provides a satisfying conclusion. For everyone else, I'd warn to keep away.



Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age