Director:
Ben E. Solenberger
Studio/Production Company:
Cacchiotti Productions
Genre:
Crime
Length:
Feature
Website:
http://www.amendstomylife.com
Score:
2.5/5
The producers of “The Life I Lived” definitely knew what they were going for when crafted this small scale yet oddly epic tale of a small-town crime lord’s rise and fall. Taking a page or two from “The Sopranos” and sticking into the middle of “The Waltons” is not a bad idea, an examination of organized crime in a rural setting. The writer/producer/director, Ben E. Solenberger has assembled a pretty solid team of people on both sides of the camera – many of whom wear several hats as is so often the case in low-budget indie productions. The results are mostly satisfying as many of the pitfalls of small productions are avoided but some of the oldest problems in the book rear their heads and sabotage the entire production in ways that could have been avoided.
The mobster genre is endlessly popular despite being wildly routine with the same basic conventions in place since “Public Enemy”, “Little Caesar” and “Scarface” all hit screens in the early 1930’s. Basically, a guy enters a life of crime, brutally connives his way to the top of the organization and, like so many things that go up, eventually comes down hard. Richard Bennett plays Bill Cacchiotti an aging businessman who has one hand in a legitimate business and another in the underworld. Aiming to avoid the hard landing suffered by so many figures in the crime world, Bill wants to turn his operation over to his son and fade gracefully into retirement. Fans of the genre will quickly realize that transitioning from a life of crime to a life of “innocence” rarely goes smoothly.
So, if Bill’s trajectory does not come as a complete surprise to audiences, at least the structure of the film will prove non-traditional. Unfortunately, it is in the structure of the screenplay the film defeats itself. Rather than unfolding in a linear fashion, Solenberger has decided to fracture the narrative and present it in the form of episodic flashbacks, vignettes’ depicting Bill’s often violent, usually unpleasant exploits from the past few decades. Structuring a screenplay in this fashion lets the screenwriter off the hook because, instead of writing a story with a beginning, middle and end, what really emerges is a series of short films about the same characters that are linked by “present day” sequences. Inherent in the narrative device of flashbacks is a necessary pause in the forward momentum of the story and in the case of “The Life I Lived”, the jerky rhythm only serves to diminish any dramatic impact that might have built up.
“The Life I Lived” is certainly not a bust and die-hard fans of the genre will appreciate it on many levels: some genuinely complex characters, decent acting and artistic flourishes (with some credit due to David Chase and company) but there is an overall monotony to the pacing and, ultimately, it does not pay off with a satisfying climax. Solenberger and company know how to put together a film and “The Life I Lived” is a very ambitious project that aims high and, while it does not hit the bull’s eye, it comes close enough to look forward to their next production.
Ben E. Solenberger
Studio/Production Company:
Cacchiotti Productions
Genre:
Crime
Length:
Feature
Website:
http://www.amendstomylife.com
Score:
2.5/5
The producers of “The Life I Lived” definitely knew what they were going for when crafted this small scale yet oddly epic tale of a small-town crime lord’s rise and fall. Taking a page or two from “The Sopranos” and sticking into the middle of “The Waltons” is not a bad idea, an examination of organized crime in a rural setting. The writer/producer/director, Ben E. Solenberger has assembled a pretty solid team of people on both sides of the camera – many of whom wear several hats as is so often the case in low-budget indie productions. The results are mostly satisfying as many of the pitfalls of small productions are avoided but some of the oldest problems in the book rear their heads and sabotage the entire production in ways that could have been avoided.
The mobster genre is endlessly popular despite being wildly routine with the same basic conventions in place since “Public Enemy”, “Little Caesar” and “Scarface” all hit screens in the early 1930’s. Basically, a guy enters a life of crime, brutally connives his way to the top of the organization and, like so many things that go up, eventually comes down hard. Richard Bennett plays Bill Cacchiotti an aging businessman who has one hand in a legitimate business and another in the underworld. Aiming to avoid the hard landing suffered by so many figures in the crime world, Bill wants to turn his operation over to his son and fade gracefully into retirement. Fans of the genre will quickly realize that transitioning from a life of crime to a life of “innocence” rarely goes smoothly.
So, if Bill’s trajectory does not come as a complete surprise to audiences, at least the structure of the film will prove non-traditional. Unfortunately, it is in the structure of the screenplay the film defeats itself. Rather than unfolding in a linear fashion, Solenberger has decided to fracture the narrative and present it in the form of episodic flashbacks, vignettes’ depicting Bill’s often violent, usually unpleasant exploits from the past few decades. Structuring a screenplay in this fashion lets the screenwriter off the hook because, instead of writing a story with a beginning, middle and end, what really emerges is a series of short films about the same characters that are linked by “present day” sequences. Inherent in the narrative device of flashbacks is a necessary pause in the forward momentum of the story and in the case of “The Life I Lived”, the jerky rhythm only serves to diminish any dramatic impact that might have built up.
“The Life I Lived” is certainly not a bust and die-hard fans of the genre will appreciate it on many levels: some genuinely complex characters, decent acting and artistic flourishes (with some credit due to David Chase and company) but there is an overall monotony to the pacing and, ultimately, it does not pay off with a satisfying climax. Solenberger and company know how to put together a film and “The Life I Lived” is a very ambitious project that aims high and, while it does not hit the bull’s eye, it comes close enough to look forward to their next production.
