The Alto Knights: Double De Niro? It's a singularly bad gimmick

Telegraph

19-03-2025

Robert De Niro has forged some legendary screen partnerships in his day. With Harvey Keitel in Mean Streets. With Joe Pesci, seven times. With Al Pacino in Heat and The Irishman.
But De Niro pitted against De Niro in The Alto Knights? Forget about it – an instruction that's sadly all too easy to obey.
The gimmick of this film, a ho-hum Mafia thriller that won't be entering the pantheon, is that De Niro plays both main characters, real-life childhood friends Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, who grew up to be feared mob bosses in 1950s New York.
The rivalry between these rascals exploded with a failed hit attempt on Costello in 1957, which pushed him into retirement, while Genovese, a few years younger, did everything in his power to become the so-called 'capo di tutti capi' (boss of bosses).
The film can't help but remind you of the first face-off between De Niro and Pacino, a quote-unquote iconic moment, in Heat (majestically shot by this film's cinematographer, the incomparable Dante Spinotti).
Alas, Bobby-squared here lacks anything like the impact. When he sits down facing himself for a pow-wow in an empty café, we're only alert to the technique. The visual effects job would be distracting whether it's fine (which it is), or bad. Much the same could be said of the prosthetics and styling that distinguish the characters.
As Frank, who ages up further to narrate this tale, De Niro is a ringer for his Irishman character and lacks compelling fish to fry. Before and after the head shot that nearly kills him, he's a mafioso on the back foot, proceeding with cautious decency. How he's feared or even respected as a gangster is hard to understand. He's simply not interesting.
As Vito, we get a bit more value from the 81-year-old star. His voice is pitched higher, entering a needling Pesci-esque zone. He relentlessly bullies his henchman Vincent (Cosmo Jarvis, burying his James Caan looks in an added roll of neck fat) for failing to take another pop at Frank when he had the chance. Vito is despicable, entirely self-interested, and quite persuasive.
The Alto Knights certainly has the off-screen pedigree you'd hope for. Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas, Casino) wrote the script, named after an infamous Manhattan social club. But the circuitous shaping feels off, a problem Barry Levinson's direction is too flaccid to fix. Nothing more exciting occurs than the botched hit, which is staged at the very start, meaning that the alleged climax – a panicked countryside Mob convention later that year – is laden with more strain that it can stand.
The women in it are the ones doing the best work. Debra Messing, as Frank's wife Bobbie, has figured out how to long for respectability, be bright and charming, and anticipate doom all at once.
Meanwhile, as a sharp-tongued club hostess who became Vito's second wife and bitterly fought him in divorce court, Kathrine Narducci is such an asset it's especially bizarre that the film just ghosts her from that point forth. We know all too well that there's only one De Niro – and with no other actor showing up for the prize fight, we need all the genuine conflict we can get.