Sleepers is yet another movie recommended by and on loan from two friends who suggested that it was a great movie, and that I should see it. I had heard of the movie, and it was on my "want to see" list. In retrospect, I feel like I might have watched this movie before, but I can't be sure of it. Truthfully, it's hard to tell if it was this movie or Mobsters or Mystic River that I'm thinking of, all of which contain similar, overlapping themes, made in different years though they were. Whether this was my first or second time watching this movie, I don't think it will leave a lasting impression, even if that was the pedantic aim of the film to begin with.
This film boasts an impressive cast from young to old. It's about four friends who grow up in New York neighborhood Hell's Kitchen in the 60s. They play a prank with dire, criminal consequences and are sent to a juvenile home, where they are mercilessly tortured and sexually abused by the guards, including Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon). The four friends agree never to speak of these horrors again, until two of them, who have grown into deadly hitmen of their own accord, see Nokes in a restaurant and decide to take their revenge. Afteward, the two remaining friends plot a surreal sort of coup in an effort that revenge be complete and the two friends get away with murder. All hinges on the help of their childhood mentor, Father Bobby (Robert DeNiro) and a drunken wash-up of a defense attorney (Dustin Hoffman). The four adult friends include Jason Patric, Brad PItt, and Billy Crudup, as well as Ron Eldard. A woman who is close to them and plays a revolving door courtship among them helps out their cause (Minnie Driver).
This movie was fraught with plot holes. The idea (and apparently it was based on a book) was a good one, but it lost itself between the childhood trauma and the adulthood revenge. The movie began interestingly enough. DeNiro was the best part of the movie, offering a voice of conscience even when he is asked to compromise his position as a priest during the ensuing trial. The children playing the boys at a young age, including Brad Renfro in his prime, were excellent. In fact, the whole ensemble was convincing in their performances.
Troublingly, this movie tried to walk a fine line of moral ambiguity and not effectively, for it demanded a heck of a lot of suspension of disbelief in order to make Michael's (Pitt) revenge master plan plausible as a plot device. The plot itself was rendered through the narration of Patric's character and not always in a linear fashion. It also toyed heavily (and apparently caused controversy) with the idea of a priest lying in order to achieve its end result.
The movie, as an experience for me, started off interesting and ended up anticlimactic. It's in that fact alone that I can't find myself being altogether praiseworthy of this movie. The performances, though, were stellar. For that reason, I rate this movie a 6.5, somewhere between cute (because it wasn't) and shaky (because it was a bit more than shaky). Sleepers does not pass the test. I'm glad I gave this a chance, but that's all I'm willing to give it. I can't see myself watching this again, even if this was the second go-round for me. It just wasn't as good as I'd hoped.