True Confessions (1981) is proof that Robert DeNiro was capable of phoning it in even during the height of his prime - maybe a foreshadowing of his current half-retirement. Currently, it seems like whatever film he's in, he wandered onto the set and maybe someone waved a script in his direction, once. And, sadly, this movie is no pinnacle for Robert Duvall, either.
The plot is pretty banal - a group of priests are in league with the mob to get church projects developed for cheap, while the mob gets respectability and high culture ins, etc etc. Meanwhile up and coming priest Desmond (De Niro) has a brother Tom (Duvall) who is a hard-nosed homicide cop who is investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.
But even though the movie looks great, and is shot with workmanlike style, it's boring. It's dry as mummy dust. It's like reading an 11-page newspaper article about construction corruption, when you don't care. De Niro is nothing special (!!!) and Duvall isn't any more interesting. Both actors seemed contractually obligated to be here. Definitely not a labor of love.
It's actually difficult to watch this movie, it's so dry and boring. The plot has too few characters, the emotional breadth is too narrow, the acting feels so forced, the plot is uninteresting... I have no idea how this got made.
It was directed by a man with the incredible name of Ulu Grosbard, who made two early movies with Dustin Hoffman, and also made Falling in Love with DeNiro, and later The Deep End of the Ocean with Michelle Pfeiffer. So he's no stranger to good actors; but boy does he waste them here.
My sister is going to kill me for saying so, but the script is flat. And was written by the otherwise amazing Joan Didion (along with her husband, based on his novel). But it's just TOO real - real in the mundane sense, where you honestly don't care.
William F. Buckley panned this movie, rightly, and said that DeNiro is woefully miscast. This is true. He isn't convincing in this role, at all. Coming a year after Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, I can only assume this was a "palate cleansing" project, meant to clean away the remnants of such a vibrant, violent character.
Yet critics liked it. It brought in $12mil, but I have no figures for how much it cost. Recommended only for DeNiro or Duvall completionists. It's the perfect counterpart to The Godfather Part II, where each of those actors turns in a masterwork. Here? Forgettable, and, more unpardonable, boringly so.
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