The Narrows is a small film produced and set in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. In it a guy from the mostly-Italian neighborhood works as a livery cab driver for a small-time mobster. When he's not driving the car, he goes to NYU to study photography and sociology. There he meets a cute ritzy girl who has no idea what his life on the other side of the river is like.
The problem is the story never rises above a totally cliche, stereotypical level. The guy's guido girlfriend walks around in tights and high heels, snapping her gum and playing with her overly teased hair and caked-on makeup. His father used to work as a garbage man until he got injured on the job. The mobster boss wears fancy silk suits and sends the guy on runs to pick up mysterious packages. The love interest at school has a sharp tongue and seems to be the first modern woman the guy has ever met. You see, the title not only refers to the geographic area called the Narrows at the end of New York Harbor, but also to the space between the guy's two worlds. Oooooh. Oy vey.
Basically nothing on screen is interesting and the script is terrible with some horrendous dialogue that would make an junior high theater troupe weep. It ends in such a convoluted and ridiculous way that it might as well be the finale to a different movie. Along the way some characters (like the neighborhood girlfriend) are totally dropped and plot points (like the hot-shot neighborhood stud who survives a tour in Afghanistan but might not last in the mafia) become totally forgettable and insignificant. Worst of all, most of the story is told very efficiently in about 80 minutes, but the film runs almost two hours. I can't explain why there are another 26 minutes or what happens in them - it gets really dull and more banal the longer it goes. This is just not a very good movie.
Stars: .5 of 4
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