Certainly the life of alleged Mafia powerhouse Meyer Lansky should have been an interesting film, but this cable TV movie goes all over the place and its two-hour running time, and with a great actor in the lead, Richard Dreyfuss, fails to really tell the audience anything that they couldn't figure out by looking up themselves. From his time leaving a Russian schetle as a Polish Jewish immigrant, coming to the Lower East Side of New York City, befriending future Mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano, and his rise in the mob, helping the creation of Las Vegas, this film somewhere just goes off the map and its ability to tell a linear story that keeps the audience engaged. Eric Roberts and Anthony LaPaglia are the older Siegel and Luciano, subjects of films themselves, with Warren Beatty Oscar nominated as the sophisticated Bugsy and Tony Curtis cast as the not so lucky Lucky. Dreyfuss does a good job, but unfortunately, the film is weakened by the script and confusing editing.
Still, you get a good view of what the Lower East Side of New York City was like in the 1910's, and Lansky as a kid proved himself to be just as tough as the street kids he ended up the friending, them all trading racial slurs with each other and fighting, eventually making an agreement to work together and being lifelong friends. Illeana Douglas is Lansky's first wife, and there's really not much depth to their marriage as seen here, and Beverly D'Angelo is the second wife, presented as a lot tougher. It's a big production, ambitious unfortunately unsuccessful, going all over the place in its time frame, showing D'Angelo and Dreyfus attempting to land in Paraguay, and all of a sudden flashing back to his first wife, Douglas. The efforts to seem smarter than it is jars the screenplay, and while the film has many interesting elements, I didn't find Meyer as presented here any more or less interesting than the many mob movies made before about the real life leaders. The musical score is pretty, though, aided by fine production design.
Still, you get a good view of what the Lower East Side of New York City was like in the 1910's, and Lansky as a kid proved himself to be just as tough as the street kids he ended up the friending, them all trading racial slurs with each other and fighting, eventually making an agreement to work together and being lifelong friends. Illeana Douglas is Lansky's first wife, and there's really not much depth to their marriage as seen here, and Beverly D'Angelo is the second wife, presented as a lot tougher. It's a big production, ambitious unfortunately unsuccessful, going all over the place in its time frame, showing D'Angelo and Dreyfus attempting to land in Paraguay, and all of a sudden flashing back to his first wife, Douglas. The efforts to seem smarter than it is jars the screenplay, and while the film has many interesting elements, I didn't find Meyer as presented here any more or less interesting than the many mob movies made before about the real life leaders. The musical score is pretty, though, aided by fine production design.