Other Titles • State of Grace • Im Vorhof der Hölle (1991)
Synopses for State of Grace (1990)
1.
The Irish Mob In New York
New York City's "Hell's Kitchen" is a pressure cooker of pent-up anger... and it's about to explode! Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright, John Turturro and John C. Reilly deliver "exceptional performances" (The Hollywood Reporter) in this "finely drawn tale of betrayal, redemption and guilt" (Los Angeles) that'll put you "on the edge of your seat" (Newsweek)!
Terry Noonan (Penn) returns to his old neighborhood with a score to settle. He's now an undercover cop dead-set on taking down an Irish mob family headed by Frankie Flannery (Harris) and his hot-headed brother Jackie (Oldman). But when Noonan infiltrates the family, his old feelings for the Flannerys' sister (Wright) further heighten the stakes as he enters a violent showdown with them during a crowded St. Patrick's Day Parade!
(12 votes)
2.
Terry Noonan returns to New York's Hell's Kitchen after twelve years to find that his old neighborhood of seedy bars and Irish-American mobsters has been taken over by Yuppies hell-bent on gentrification. Terry's childhood buddies, ruthless gang leader Frankie Flannery and his psychotic brother Jackie, are determined to keep the neighborhood's tradition of organized -- and extremely violent -- crime alive. Terry joins Frankie's gang and gets back together with his former love, Frankie's sister Kathleen. But as the cops crack down on the Flannery crime ring, it becomes clear that Terry's loyalties are dangerously divided.
(12 votes)
3.
Overshadowed by GoodFellas when it was released in 1990, State of Grace gradually emerged as one of the best New York gangster films of its decade. It was also the first to feature the Irish American mob known as the Westies. Here, their territory west of Times Square is being gentrified by an unwelcome infusion of yuppie cash, squeezing them into a reluctant alliance with Mafia kingpins. Frankie (Ed Harris) is the boss; little brother Jackie (Gary Oldman) is his volatile muscle; their friend Terry (Sean Penn) has returned from an extended absence, harboring a dangerous secret while rekindling his love for Frankie and Jackie's sister Kathleen (Robin Wright, Penn's future wife). Giving one of his scariest, most violent performances, Oldman offers stark, brutal contrast to Harris's pent-up fury, while Penn breathes life into his character's standard-issue dilemma. A former protégé of Steven Spielberg's, director Phil Joanou handles this gritty potboiler with confident, unobtrusive style, ramping up the tension of divided loyalties, even as the plot grows increasingly familiar. --Jeff Shannon
(12 votes)
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