ROMANCE & CIGARETTES

ICON FILM DISTRIBUTION

RELEASED 24 March 2006

Describing itself as a ‘down-and-dirty musical love story’, ‘Romance & Cigarettes’ is the most annoying, trying, head-scratching film of 2006.

Nick Murder (Tony Soprano, sorry, I mean James Gandolfini) is a construction worker who is having an affair with a foul-mouthed redhead, Tula (dirty-talking Kate Winslet). When his wife Kitty (Susan Sarandon) and three daughters find out, all hell breaks loose and Nick finds his life turned upside down.

A procession of musical numbers are not so much sung as screeched out, from Tom Jones to Bruce Springsteen, and the awful sincerity of the film weighs it down like one of the iron girders Gandolfini’s character works on. Only his workmate, played by Steve Buscemi, and a static-haired Christopher Walken bring any true comedy moments to the film. It’s like a zombiefied Dennis Potter rose from the grave and wrote a new musical, but lacking any soul. Writer-director John Turturro is responsible for this gimmicky film.

TWO OUT OF FIVE