GOMORRAH 1.5**** “Gomorrah” comes to U.S. with an impressive pedigree: it won the Grand Prize at Cannes and Best Pictureat the European Film Awards, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and several other awards Clearly, “Gomorrah” is supposed to represent the best of today’s Italian/European cinema...BUT, if this is the best, I would hate to imagine the worst!
Dark and downbeat, “Gomorrah” is a film that the critics are raving about but, on the other hand, most average moviegoers will be scratching their heads and saying “ What the heck is this”? …while feeling like they just get snookered – yet again – into coughing up the pricey cost of a movie ticket for a so-called “important” film.
I see a lot of movies and it's rare that one has me looking at the ceiling, at the audience, at the wall and at my watch.... but for the life of me, I couldn't find my way into this film and don’t think there was one. Billed as a "true" look at the mafia in Naples, Italy, it literally achieves the impossible by making the mafia look monotonous. A mob film that elicits yawns? Yes, “Gomorrah” does from start to finish and that covers a grueling 137 minutes. With about five or six subplot lines, it takes skill to interweave the elements and make it work…unfortunately that didn’t happen here. I was amazed at how awkward and clumsy this was done. For most of the movie, I didn’t know who was who or to whom they belonged or why they were warring with each other or what was at stake. And just what did the woman with the monkey have to do with...anything? It takes effort to mess up a movie that has a woman with a monkey.

“Gomorrah” is a joyless cinematic experience…. the movie pulls you into the mire of a hellish, hopeless environment and then just leaves you there to fend for yourself. It makes no accommodation for the viewer: gives no signposts, no markers, nothing to help you get your bearings in this dark and dour world where no matter what is done, the corrupting influence of the mob will cause it to turn to “merda”…(Italian for dog poop)

Clark