Carlito’s Way

Helmed by Brian De Palma, Carlito’s Way follows Al Pacino’s Carlito Brigante as he emerges from a five-year prison stint determined to go straight and live a more respectable existence – with problems ensuing after certain nefarious figures come charging back into Carlito’s world. Director De Palma, working from David Koepp’s screenplay, delivers a methodically-paced drama that admittedly grows more and more absorbing as it progresses, as the movie, which kicks off with a fairly pointless in-media-res opening, boasts an often astonishingly engaging and electrifying Pacino performance that heightens the impact of several key sequences – with the actor’s stirring turn certainly matched by Sean Penn’s engrossing, chameleon-like efforts as Carlito’s exceedingly sketchy lawyer. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that the picture also features compelling work from an eclectic supporting cast that includes John Leguizamo, Luis Guzman, and Viggo Mortensen, with the latter’s spellbinding one-scene appearance as a former associate of Carlito’s unquestionably a highlight.) It’s clear, as well, that Carlito’s Way benefits substantially from De Palma’s predictably stylish approach to the material, as the film contains a series of thoroughly electrifying sequences, including a tense, gripping shootout in a pool hall and a prison escape that goes violently wrong, that elevate the proceedings on an impressively recurring basis – which, when coupled with an absolutely enthralling climax, cements the whole thing’s place as a top-tier endeavor from a decidedly erratic filmmaker.

***1/2 out of ****