Three bookies who are operating illegally are being tracked by the police. They manage to escape and set up shop elsewhere, but manage to attract the attention of Iggy, one of the police officers on their case. When he hears that his brother has committed suicide because of debts owed to the bookies, Iggy decides to seek revenge on his brother's behalf. The story is further complicated by Leon, a simple, but kindly, man, who is friends with the bookies - wanting to help a neighbour who is being regularly beaten by her man, he gets hold of a gun, which he then uses to accidentally kill one of the bookies' victims. Will the bookies manage to escape from Iggy's clutches? Will Leon manage to rescue his neighbour from death by domestic violence? And in all the madness, will Iggy's wife have their child without any complications?

The one actor that stood out from all the others is John Turturro, who plays Leon. I recognise him from Monk and also O Brother Where Art Thou, but he has been in masses of films and series, often as a secondary character. As Leon, he shows that he is very capable of taking on a main role. Leon is slighly mentally deficient, to put it in a politically correct way - he is very sweet and kind, but doesn't always manage to see the evil in people. Turturro plays this completely convincingly, adding a touch of humour, but without ever turning the role into a mickey-take. He carried the film for me; without him, I don't think there would have been anything much worth watching.

I found the story very confusing at first, and actually had to rewind a couple of times just to work out what was going on. Nothing is really explained properly and the viewer is left to work things out, which, when there is so much going on, is no easy task. And then there are all the different threads of the film - Iggy's brother's death, Iggy's wife's pregnancy, Leon's neighbour's predicament, Leon's own predicament, the bookies' illegal operation - it just became all a bit too much crammed into a relatively short film. The massive number of people involved didn't help matters either; I barely got the chance to work out one person's role before the film moved on to the next one.

On a more positive note, there is a lot of gentle humour in the film, and although I didn't really find myself laughing out loud, it did make me smile. And I liked the fact that, in the world of gangsters and mob violence, there is still some kindness out there - it may not have been the central part of the film, but it managed to sneak in and make itself apparent. Much of this, however, is down to John Turturro and his abilities as an actor - I would really like to see him in a more meaty role next time.

Classification: 18