It's a performance episode of "Contrarian Corner". Here's Ben Miller...
The narrative has been pushed. Robert De Niro is back! Al Pacino is back! Scorsese and Netflix are a match made in heaven! The Irishman is the Best Picture frontrunner. I'm not here to disagre with the critical acclaim. But, we need to have a talk about what is going on with Robert De Niro.
There are three main problems...
1. Everyone knows what young Robert De Niro is supposed to look like
The bulk of The Irishman takes place over the span of 25 years. The first act of the film utilizes digital technology to de-age De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. While Pesci and Pacino are de-aged to relatively normal levels, (Pacino from 79 to 49, Pesci from 76 to 52), De Niro is supposed to be in his early to mid-30s Frank Sheeran from his current 76 years old.
The biggest problem is De Niro doesn’t give you a break. He is present in nearly every minute of the film of the first act and you can’t help but not believe he is in his 30s.
Robert De Niro came on the scene in a big way in Scorsese’s Mean Streets as an actual 30 year old. He spent his 30s well in the public eye with a string of classics, from The Godfather Part II, all the way through The King of Comedy when he was 40. There is a well-establish precedent for what De Niro is supposed to look like in his 30s.
Even with the smoothed-faced De Niro, it doesn’t evoke the same feeling of 1970s-80s De Niro. Below is De Niro at 33 in Taxi Driver, and next to it is De Niro in the early scenes from The Irishman.
The Irishman De Niro looks like an old guy trying to act young. He doesn’t look young and it doesn’t help that De Niro has adopted a permanent scowl throughout the first act.
2. Body language matters when it comes to youth
Do you know the other big thing about Taxi Driver De Niro? He looked like this:
I don’t care how athletic you are as a septuagenarian, you just don’t move like someone in their 30s. Re-watch the scene where Sheeran beats up the grocer in front of his daughter. Does it look like anything other than a 76 year-old man?
I’ll tell you another thing. The Irishman really kicks up a notch when Sheeran advances in age and is in his fifties.
Look at this guy:
Much better. Not only does his face look more along the lines of what age his character should be, De Niro’s performance suits the age. The first hour of the film is like a well-tailored suit that is three-sizes too small. When we reach the second act, the suit is still one-half size too small, but it looks great and feels so much better on the wearer.
3. De Niro hasn't been the best actor in the world in a long timeThe first two plus hours of The Irishman feature Sheeran schmoozing with gangsters, driving a truck, performing gangster duties and eventually hits for said gangsters. All the while, he advances up the ranks because…why? Perhaps charisma and charm, but De Niro plays up precisely none of that.
There have been plenty of history buffs decrying the historical accuracy of some events the film portrays, but I’ll tell you the most unbelievable part. When we meet Sheeran, he is married and already has a bunch of kids. He then meets a restaurant waitress whom he leaves his wife for and eventually marries. Nothing about anything we have seen about Frank leads us to believe he was anything other than a robot. He has little to no personality. All Frank does is flash his weird smile and that was that.
There are defenders of the legacy of De Niro, and I am absolutely one of them. His performance in Taxi Driver is among the greatest male performances in the history of film. But, since 1999 and 2000 where De Niro had a back-to-back of Analyze This and Meet the Parents, and leaned into comedy in a new way, he has not been artistically challenged. Every film for the next decade refused to challenge the actor and he gave increasingly middling performances. If you want a recent example, look no further than his performance in Joker just a few short months ago.
The last hour of The Irishman is a terrific reminder of De Niro skill in his peak era but does it make up for the first 150 minutes of such an uneven performance?