The Irishman (2019)

Three and a half hours. Spending that much time on a gangster movie feels daunting at first. But by the end, the length makes sense. The Irishman isn’t a flashy mob film — it’s about a man who spends his whole life loyal to that world and arrives at an empty old age. My rating is ★5.0. It earns full marks not through thrills, but through the loneliness it leaves behind. That’s rare.

What it’s about

Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a WWII veteran turned truck driver, becomes a “fixer” for the Mafia and gets deeply tangled up with Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). It’s based on a true story. The source book’s title, I Heard You Paint Houses, is mob slang for carrying out a hit, and it’s the film’s first line. Hoffa really did vanish in 1975, and his body has never been found; the film offers one version of what happened, through Frank’s eyes. Netflix funded it — which is why we get to see these veterans share the screen one last time.

Fast at the front, slow at the end

The story unfolds in four acts across decades. The first two and a half hours pull you in hardest, as Frank earns the trust of mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), learns the “work,” and rises into the heart of union power alongside Hoffa. The late-third-act stretch, a roughly thirty-minute build-up as the tension around Hoffa reaches its limit, is some of the most gripping filmmaking I’ve seen in a while. The final act, dealing with Frank’s old age, drags by comparison. Its slow reckoning with guilt and reconciliation can feel long — that’s worth being honest about.

The acting is the whole point

In the end, this is a film about performances. De Niro plays Frank as a man who buries every feeling, with the depth of old age. Pacino is the opposite — loud, fearless, clearly having a blast as Hoffa, his best in years. Joe Pesci, out of retirement, is the reverse of his explosive Goodfellas days: quiet, and all the more intimidating for it. Even smaller roles, like Ray Romano’s, leave a mark. The digital de-aging occasionally shows, but never enough to break immersion, and the tech itself is impressive.

Funnier than you’d think, and finally sad

For all its violence, the film is surprisingly funny. Dry jokes slip in between point-blank killings, so it never gets too grim. The direction isn’t showy or full of modern symmetry — it’s plain, almost old-fashioned, carried by the rhythm of its cuts and a period-perfect soundtrack rather than flashy camerawork.

In broad strokes it plays like The Godfather Part II from Frank’s point of view, but the tone is far more subdued, and calmer still than Goodfellas. Scorsese deliberately drops the giddy momentum — and given the age of his cast and what the film is really about, that’s the right call. The restraint piles up and returns with weight at the end. No glamorous score, no satisfying revenge: what’s left for a man who gave his life to loyalty is one room nobody visits, and that ending lingers.

Ratings & reception

Reception is largely positive. The Irishman holds 7.8/10 on IMDb and a 96% Tomatometer from 411 reviews, and it earned 10 Academy Award nominations — including Best Picture, Director and Supporting Actor (Al Pacino and Joe Pesci) — though it won none. Critics especially praised the heights a late-career Scorsese reaches, while audiences are more split over the long runtime and quiet pace.

Verdict

It isn’t a perfect film. It’s long, and the back half drags. I still gave it ★5.0, because it plays like a farewell to an era and its actors, and a love letter to the gangster genre. More than that, we’re unlikely to see these particular legends gathered in one film again — and that alone makes the three and a half hours worth it.

Recommended for

• Fans of The Godfather and Goodfellas
• People who prefer lingering resonance over fast pacing
• Anyone ready to commit to a long runtime