The movie description on Showtime reads "a small town man tries to hide the fact that he's responsible for the death of his stepson in a construction accident" . That's not at all the story!!!! I went ahead and watched because of the excellent actors, PSHoffman, Richard Jenkins, John Turturro, Eddie Marsan, and a few others. What a bunch of unexpected events! There was some drama, some comedy, and an all out strange ending. I enjoyed this movie and would recommend to others to check it out.

Like a Bukowski poem set to music and sung by Tom Waits, a rancid, deep dark comedy of errors in an urban hell. An amazing ensemble of great actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Richard Jenkins, Eddie Marsan and many more of some of the finest drunks and lowlifes you'll see on film. Christina Hendricks, unfortunately, is out of place and out-skilled. The script walks with a limp and probably has a disease.

What is it with this love affair people have with movies about east coast urban ethnics? I'm so sick of it. At least Deniro branched out a bit.Here's another story about inner city white Catholics drinking, fighting, and screwing. OK, we get it already.Hoffman is so fat. It's really remarkable that he looks the same in every film. He's short, has no muscle, and has that enormous beer belly. You would think he would have the discipline to alter his look for different roles. I don't buy him as Italian or whatever the heck he was supposed to be. But he is talented in his understated way.John Turturro as a greasy inner city thug? There's a stretch.If both the murdered kid's parents are reasonably calm people, how did he wind up being almost like a feral alley cat? That seemed unrealistic.I do get it that the dilemmas that Hoffman goes through are just vehicles to highlight the different characters in the neighborhood and the overall vicious cycle of it all.But in these movies, you rarely see anyone engaged in anything other than a stereotype. Where was the parish priest? Does anyone work a normal job? Does anyone play an instrument or coach little league? Generally speaking, working class Catholics do get into a lot of mischief world wide. I'm not disputing that. But even in a neighborhood like the one here, there are plenty of exceptions. Although we don't see them.The most interesting aspect was the question of whether the columnist truly respects a certain dignity in the people, or is simply an educated elitist lampooning them for educated readers. Even he isn't sure. Furthermore, he is as sleazy as them. He drinks, he's a horn dog, and he's lazy. In some sense, he sees himself ironically in the people he is writing about.I think he was trying to explain that irony to the lady when he says that he's 60 and the city loves him.As others have said, there was no indication of it taking place in modern times, but also no obvious references to retro culture. I suppose the fact that people read a print paper for their information says it all.If you don't mind gratuitous violence, ugly sex, and loads of profanity, give it a try for its characterizations and atmosphere. I wish I hadn't.

Wasted my time on it. Story might be good but screenplay spoiled it. Leon's mother never looked grieved from his (didn't expect anything from his stepfather also). Letting the columnist firstly get cozy with herself and then having sex with him in the wild didn't look like her son recently died. If it was for humor then also it was utterly ineffective. Movie has strange characterizations like the killer granny and his barehanded killer son. If you're into mature sex to you really gonna love it as Leone's mother looked really hot and did great scenes. Overall thumbs down from my side (don't blame me, if it was art it didn't strike the right chords)