This is a great mob/gangster movie with a great cast. Surprisingly, it has been largely overlooked. In fact, I had never even heard of it until I saw it on IFC in 2008, 18 years after it was released!

This movie also has a lot of similarities with The Departed. I am surprised few have noted the similarities:

*The Irish Mob.
*The demented Irish Mob "Godfather," played by Ed Harris.
*The undercover cop who was affiliated with the gang, left, became an officer, went undercover, and then returned.
*The love interest with a person close to the undercover officer's friend.

If "The Godfather had one flaw, it was the odd stoicism that permeated some of the scenes, the slow moments in between major events. "State of Grace" fixes those few things that may have made "The Godfather" a slightly imperfect film, and delivers a phenomenal gangster film with passion and honesty that are frighteningly real.

The entire cast is brilliant, aided by a magnificent script and artistic editing and framing. Gary Oldman stands out above the rest, transforming his character from volatile to charming to sympathetic with talent and an ugly honesty that makes for a captivating performance (or is he performing at all? is he just *being*? I can't find the seams in Oldman's work that separate him from the characters he portrays). I couldn't see a bad actor in the bunch, though, and Robin Wright is absolutely magnificent as the conflicted Kathleen, the sister of Jackie (Oldman) and Freddie (Ed Harris).

This is an absolutely wonderful film; it's well worth your time.

I'm not going to give a synopsis of the movie, but I will talk about how classic Gary Oldman is in this movie as the character of Jackie Flannery, the firecracker, semi-insane younger brother of the head of the Irish Mob in Hell's Kitchen New York. He just has so much personality that you HAVE to love him! (Not to mention, ladies, he is nice to look at). If you have seen Gary in "The Professional", I could almost say that Jackie Flannery and Norman Stansfield could be cousins or related in some way (even though they are different types of crazy).

Sean Penn is the main main character in this and he is always good in everything he's in. But as far as mob movies go, it's not the best. See it for Gary Oldman's performance!

Predictable and unbeleivable, to say the least. Ed Harris is not convincing as a mafia boss, and this makes the relationships between his cohorts, particularly Oldman, less than convincing as well.

Oldman's like a pot ready to boil, and while ridiculously unbelevable in his relationship to the boss (Ed Harris), his relationship with Sean Penn's character works and impresses even, at times. Like a seething volcano, Oldman is totally out of control. It's this intensity, I think, that makes it hard to beleive that he'd be taking orders from Harris. And when he does, well, there's your problem. Another good example of how unbeleivable this story plays out is Oldman's total cluelessness in relation to certain unfortunate events at the end of the movie. These are mob guys?

The movie, while dragging somewhat mid-way, picks up momentum again for a while near the end, but kind of peters out again after that in a final cloud of melodramatic cliche scenes and acting with the help of John Turturro, the girlfriend, and Sean Penn himself. Maybe this movie suffered from too many big name actors.

Don't buy this movie. It becomes Grade A cheddar by the end. For a much better old Sean Penn movie (with Christopher Walken), check out "At Close Range".

At the outset, I will concede that I've never been really big on mob movies. They're OK I guess, but they've never been at the top of my list of favorite genres. That said, this is one of my favorite mob movies of the limited number of mob films I've seen in my life.

Sean Penn portrays a Boston police officer [Terry] who is called back to his hometown of New York City to assist with an NYPD Special Investigations Unit. More specifically, he is asked to go undercover in the Irish quadrant of the city, known as the Hell's Kitchen.

He is given the task of spying on his old friends of the Flannery clan. Ed Harris plays Frankie Flannery, the head of an Irish mob outfit in the Kitchen. Gary Oldman plays Jackie Flannery, Frankie's impulsive, violence-prone loose cannon of a brother.

Robin Wright Penn portrays Kate, the sister of the Flannery brothers. She is most well known for being Sean Penn's wife (although I'm unsure whether they were married yet when this film was made) and for starring in The Princess Bride (Special Edition). Kate has always done her best to escape the life of being the sister to criminals, but feels that with Terry's return she is being sucked back into the affairs of the Kitchen.

All through the storyline, there are hints that the Irish mob used to be far more powerful & autonomous than it is these days. Also, the Hell's Kitchen was much more "pure" Irish, but over time the percentage of Irishmen in the Kitchen has declined, and the Irish mob's power has eroded along with this decline. So much as changed, in fact, that Flannery's outfit these days is the mob world's equivalent of a "subcontractor" to an Italian mob outfit. This, of course, sparks all sorts of resentment and minor turf battles that have the propensity of churning out tragic outcomes.

As a sidenote, in this story Ed Harris & Gary Oldman play brothers. They would both go on to individually portray the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Oldman plays the musician in Immortal Beloved while Harris plays Beethoven in the recent Copying Beethoven. That both actors can play in a mob movie and turn around & play the same historical figure (very well on both accounts, I may add!) is a testimony to the acting prowess of both.

The present film is directed by Philip Jounou, who also directed U2's film U2 - Rattle and Hum. John Turtorro frequently shows up in mob movies, and in this one he is a cop instead of a mobster. One can't question the competency of the cast overall as it is top-notch. If you like mob movies at all, or if you have a single drop of Irish blood in your veins, then I would highly recommend this film. If neither of the above applies to you, I still this film would be worth a viewing.