Brian DePalma and Al Pacino team up again ten years after the controversial Scarface to give us the story of reformed Puerto Rican criminal Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way. Carlito has just been sprung out of his thirty year sentence in only five years by his lawyer (played by Sean Penn) and has vowed to stay legit until he can come up with the money to move to the Bahamas and buy into a car rental business. Things are going good for Carlito. He's running a night club that's making him money and he's back with his girl (played by Penelope Ann Miller). But this all begins to unravel due to the "code of the streets". Pacino is excellent as Carlito, who he doesn't play in the over the top way he's played a good portion of his roles since Scent of a Woman. Miller is also great as Gale, the woman who he left behind when he went to prison five years before. But the true stand out of the film was Sean Penn, who got so into his role as dirty attorney David Kleinfeld. Penn is amazing in this film and steals a few scenes from the legend Pacino. Carlito's Way is Sean Penn's breakout performance.
Brian DePalma's fingerprints are all over this film. The subway scenes and the Vertigoesque camerawork when Gale finally pulls Carlito into her arms are classic DePalma who directs the film with great precision.
Dare I say it? Carlito's Way is miles ahead of Scarface, a film that I consider to be one of the most overrated films of the last thirty years (no, it didn't make the top ten). It isn't as excessive as Scarface that spent almost three hours beating you over the head with bags of cocaine and the "f" word. Carlito is a more relaxed film that is steeped in film noir, mainly in the narration. The opening is a strong reminder of Sunset Blvd. from almost forty years before. Carlito's Way is one of the strongest pieces from DePalma and represents a renaissance that Pacino had in the early 1990's. If only Al could get that back now.
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