‘Newark’s Many Saints’ Review: The Best Is Really Done

The mob boss Tony Soprano in “The Sopranos” was many things: husband, father, animal lover, femicide, sociopathic capitalist, pop culture sensation. Americans love the softer side of their villains, and Tony suffered from inner turmoil, manifested by panic attacks, to go with the blood on his hands. A mob in therapy — with at least a sexy female psychologist — created plenty of narrative tension, as did their overlapping gangs and extended families. Regardless, Tony was the perfect distillation of two great American passions: self-improvement and getting away with murder.

By David Chase, “The Sopranos” went mysteriously black in 2007, even though it lastsincluding HBO, which was its original home for six seasons. As a rule, when we write about fiction, we use the present tense: The characters are in the infinite present, or that’s the idea. But Death of James GandolfiniPlaying Tony complicates this because he and the show were interchangeable. With his fluid, chirpy expressiveness and burly, powerfully threatening physicality, Gandolfini fleshed out Tony’s inner struggle, filling a potential cartoon with soul and adding more depth to the show. His absence is the reason why I consider his signature character in the past tense.

It’s also one reason why “The Many Saints of Newark,” a busy, unnecessary, disappointingly mundane origin story, didn’t work. The movie definitely has a pedigree. It was written by Chase with Lawrence Konner, who wrote several episodes of “The Sopranos,” and directed by another TV veteran, Alan Taylor. Flipping through time periods, it follows the emotional education (moral and emotional) of young Tony, an 11-year-old pipsqueak played by William Ludwig in 1967. After much introduction and plot development, the story jumps to 16-year-old Tony, now played by Gandolfini’s son Michael, who bears a striking resemblance to his father.