Title: Rob The Mob
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Starring: Michael Pitt, Nina Arianda, Andy Garcia, Ray Romano.
‘Rob the Mob’ portrays the Bonnie & Clyde of the 90s, the contemporary Robin Hood couple who stole from the Mafia to give to the poor…with the love-dove-thieves alone being the poor in question.
The American crime drama, is set in New York City in 1991, where small-time crooks Tommy (Michael Pitt) and Rosie (Nina Arianda) – who are madly and passionately in love with one another – specialise in robbing mafia social clubs. As they go deeper down the rabbit hole, they stumble upon a score bigger than they could ever imagine, becoming targets of both the mob and the FBI in the process.
The true story of the couple from borough Queens, Tommy and Rosemarie Uva, is very well depicted on the big screen. The characters are written and interpreted with simplicity, veracity, intensity and truth. Tommy’s interest in the mafia is personal and his thefts, besides being a means of survival, are also his intimate vendetta to humiliate the mob, who extorted and beat his father.
The film reunites director Raymond De Felitta with Andy Garcia, as a heavily bearded wise mob boss. But the true revelation, other than the talented Michael Pitt, is Nina Arianda, with her gloriously vivacious, freewheeling performance.
‘Rob the Mob’ is graced with good humour, seamy period texture and a conscientious moral, that doesn’t overflow in preachiness, by rebuking that what goes around comes around, again and again; hence it is better to do good, rather than sow the wind and reap whirlwind.
Technical: B+
Acting: A
Story: B
Overall: B+
Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
