‘Alto Knights’ review: Robert De Niro’s new mob movie is a huge disappointment

The tagline “From the team that brought you ‘Goodfellas’” serves as an appealing lure for enthusiasts of mafia narratives or, more broadly, exceptional cinema.

This is the strategic approach Warner Bros. is employing to attract viewers to “The Alto Knights,” featuring Robert De Niro and scripted by Nicholas Pileggi, the author behind both “Goodfellas” and Martin Scorsese’s “Casino.”

However, as this meandering and unfocused film, helmed by Barry Levinson, concludes, the aforementioned tagline resonates with the diminished impact of “From the team that brought you Coke — Coke 2.”

The potentially compelling narrative of New York mob bosses and once-allies, now adversaries, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese — both portrayed by De Niro, inexplicably — is transformed into a convoluted, directionless, and perplexing historical account that drags on with limited success.

The storyline progresses at a sluggish pace. Underdeveloped supporting characters are relegated to the periphery, virtually inconsequential.

The film initiates with a jolt. In 1957, Vito, the former leader of the Luciano crime syndicate, orders a hit on Frank, the current head. Frank is shot at close range in the lobby of his Central Park West residence — yet survives.

It might have been preferable if he had not. The ensuing segment of this tedious movie involves Frank’s repeated declarations of exiting the criminal enterprise and retiring to Italy for his wife Bobbie (Debra Messing). Subsequently, in a sequence that induces audience apathy, he neither departs the business nor relocates to Italy. A considerable scene is dedicated to his dogs, for those seeking canine content in a gangster film.

Perhaps attempting to emulate De Niro’s intensity, Messing delivers an exaggerated performance. Her perpetually wide eyes suggest a constant state of shock, akin to witnessing a brontosaurus in “Jurassic Park.”

Meanwhile, the volatile Vito takes on a new spouse and secretly plots to regain his former position, a development less captivating than anticipated. Frank testifies at the 1950 Kefauver mafia hearings, another wearisome episode. Welcome to “The Plod-father.”

A power struggle among Manhattan mafiosi should be brimming with tension. This subject matter typically fascinates. Tourists even visit eateries where mobsters met their demise. However, the acrimony between the rivals is poorly articulated during Frank’s extensive, nostalgic narration, which viewers are likely to disregard. The information overload is detrimental.

Furthermore, pivotal occurrences — executions, clandestine meetings in restaurants, celebratory gatherings — hold minimal relevance to subsequent events.

One might expect De Niro’s eccentric dual role to inject dynamism into this lackluster endeavor. Indeed, he manages the experiment capably, though it pales in comparison to his most celebrated works. He imbues Vito with a shrill voice and erratic demeanor, while Frank embodies classic De Niro.

Nevertheless, the dual performance remains a gratuitous gimmick. The audience is constantly aware that the same Oscar-winning actor is embodying both protagonists — an insurmountable barrier to suspending disbelief. This is not a film to be taken seriously.

“Alto Knights” achieves its peak when embracing humor, particularly in Vito’s scenes. The eccentric character is amusing in his rants about Mormonism and his attempts to convince the media of his normalcy by preparing Sunday gravy in the suburbs. However, the film’s ambition is not to be the next “Analyze This.”

Nor is it “The Irishman.”clocking in at just over two hours, it is relatively concise for the genre. Despite this, the viewing experience feels interminable. A perplexing stylistic decision that undermines the pacing is the employment of slow fade-outs at the conclusion of scenes — effectively sedating the audience.

Perhaps, however, this technique is ironically apt for a movie that ultimately feels like one prolonged, slow fade to black.