Robert De Niro delivers another dynamic performance in "Night and the City," lacing his unpleasant character with a dark sense of humor in this remake of the 1950 film noir classic. Unfortunately, the movie is as unpleasant as De Niro's character.
De Niro plays Harry Fabian, a sleazy attorney in modern-day New York who seizes an opportunity to take one last shot at the big time when he lines up investors to help him become a boxing promoter. (The original film was set in London and the sport was wrestling.)
Unfortunately, Fabian's plan is not well thought out and his impatience and penchant for borrowing money from both friends and enemies makes for an ill-fated project. He even solicits a loan from the local bartender (Cliff Gorman), whose wife (Jessica Lange) he is seeing on the sly.
To make matters even more precarious, Fabian seeks out as a partner the brother (Jack Warden) of his chief competitor (Alan King), a corrupt boxing promoter whose goons will not hesitate to rough up Fabian at the first opportunity.
De Niro's attempts to hustle up the money he needs to make this ambitious effort work and his encounters with other low-life sleaze-balls in this district of Manhattan make up most of the film. And sleaze seems to be the point here. For example, it's considered a big joke by the filmmakers when the bartender violently throws a nun out in the street — and an even bigger joke when it's revealed that she's just a street hustler in a habit.
Initially, some of this is effective as we build a certain amount of reluctant sympathy for De Niro's character. But ultimately, the film simply wears the audience down. And the ambiguous conclusion doesn't help.
De Niro's performance here is hyper and interesting — a dynamo who isn't as dumb as he seems, though he continues to make one fatal mistake after another. But it's overshadowed by the supporting players, especially scene-stealers King and Warden, as disparate brothers who detest one another. Their roles are better conceived opportunities for these movie vets and they make the most of them.
Jessica Lange, on the other hand, is straddled with a role that provides little room for expansion. She tries to fill in the gaps, but her character is superficial and lacking dimension — or, for that matter, importance in the story.
The film is especially disappointing since it comes from director Irwin Winkler, who guided De Niro through a sensitive and understated performance in "Guilty By Suspicion" last year.
"Night and the City" is rated R for violence, sex and profanity, all fairly graphic.