Every now and again, a film comes along that contains a scene so memorable that , the moment you see it, you immediately know that you will still be remembering it long after the rest of the film is lost to history. This is one of those films. Overall, it is yet another "drama-dy" of the type that de Niro has been losing himself in, at this later stage of his spectacular career. It is one of those films which, as the professional critics say, was doomed to fail, since the premise is so weak that, even if it were to fire on all cylinders (which it does not) you would still not get much of a bang.
But in the first 20 mins of this film, viewers get a treat. Transplanted to France as part of some not very credible WPP (witness protection program) de Niro's daughter Belle, well played by Dianna Agron, gets "offered a lift home" by a quartet of local punks looking to see that the girl's first day at school is memorable. She accepts. They drive to a secluded spot and she protests. Punk #1 basically ignores her and meaningfully brushes some of her clothing aside. She excuses herself, goes to the car, picks up a tennis racket (iconic, of course, in American gangster fiction) and promptly beats the %^$% out of the guy while his friends watch. She then effectively steals the car and drives herself home. While beating him senseless, this is the art in the scene, she lectures him as if he were a small child. She concludes her monologue with the epic line, "WOMEN ARE YOUR FUTURE" and then one more smack upside the head with the bat to drive the point home. I do believe this scene is right up there with the best talking points in Thelma and Louise, and maybe one or two other feminist classics also. But that folks is where the wonderment ends. The rest of the film is not much to write home about, except perhaps for the annotation that, in her late 50s, Pfeiffer is still one of the most beautiful women in the world.
But in the first 20 mins of this film, viewers get a treat. Transplanted to France as part of some not very credible WPP (witness protection program) de Niro's daughter Belle, well played by Dianna Agron, gets "offered a lift home" by a quartet of local punks looking to see that the girl's first day at school is memorable. She accepts. They drive to a secluded spot and she protests. Punk #1 basically ignores her and meaningfully brushes some of her clothing aside. She excuses herself, goes to the car, picks up a tennis racket (iconic, of course, in American gangster fiction) and promptly beats the %^$% out of the guy while his friends watch. She then effectively steals the car and drives herself home. While beating him senseless, this is the art in the scene, she lectures him as if he were a small child. She concludes her monologue with the epic line, "WOMEN ARE YOUR FUTURE" and then one more smack upside the head with the bat to drive the point home. I do believe this scene is right up there with the best talking points in Thelma and Louise, and maybe one or two other feminist classics also. But that folks is where the wonderment ends. The rest of the film is not much to write home about, except perhaps for the annotation that, in her late 50s, Pfeiffer is still one of the most beautiful women in the world.