'The Many Saints of Newark' review: More footnote than great mob epic

A big-screen prequel to "The Sopranos" -- the definition of peak TV -- sounds irresistible. That the movie is hotly entertaining but hardly essential viewing makes "The Many Saints of Newark," in theaters and on HBO Max, more a footnote than a great mob epic in its own right.

Tony Soprano, immortalized by the late, great James Gandolfini, is just a pup when the tale kicks off in the 1960s. That he's played as a teen by the Emmy-winning star's lookalike son, Michael Gandolfini, adds a resonant touch that is incalculably funny and touching. Teen Tony is a blank page and young Gandolfini catches him in the compelling act of inventing himself.

The main character in "The Many Saints of Newark is Tony's self-appointed uncle, Dickie Moltisanti (a simmering Alessandro Nivola), a hothead masquerading as a loving family man. "Molti santi" translated from Italian means "many saints," though no Moltisanti is saintly, especially Dickie.

Dickie is the father of Christopher, played on the series by Michael Imperioli, who narrates the film from the grave since Tony killed him on the sixth and final season by squeezing Christopher's nostrils and cutting off his breathing after a bloody car accident. Some family.

The movie, co-written by "The Sopranos" creator David Chase and directed by series regular Alan Taylor, only fitfully achieves the psychological complexity of the TV version that literally had Tony spilling his mob-family traumas to a shrink, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco).

And there's plenty of trauma to spill, especially when Dickie's dad (Ray Liotta) returns from the old country with a young bride, Guiseppina (Michela De Rossi), with whom Dickie falls quickly in lust. That ends with a shocking twist you won't see coming.

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The movie gives us all the characters in embryo, the ones we loved on the series that ended 14 years ago. There's Paulie (Billy Magnussen), Big Pussy (Samson Moeakiola) and Silvio (John Magaro), with the flapping wig. But while Tony's dad, Johnny Boy (Jon Bernthal), is mostly in prison, his mother Livia (Vera Farmiga) and Uncle Junior (Corey Stoll) score deeper impressions.

Clearly, there are way too many characters to jam into a two-hour movie. Add in the Newark race riots that began in 1967 and Harold McBrayer (a terrific Leslie Odom Jr.), a numbers runner who wants to build his own Black empire of racketeering, and tensions are bound to explode.

Violence spills into every corner of the movie as Tony must decide whether to pursue his educational potential in college or join the psychopaths in his real and adopted families who run the alleged "waste management" business that fronts for the criminal underworld.

The film exerts an undeniable fascination for fans of "The Sopranos." You'll struggle if you have never seen the series. But even advocates of Tony and his gang will have to admit that "The Many Saints of Newark" can't live up to the series that spawned it or "The Godfather" and "GoodFellas," the other two mob epics that constitute the trifecta of gangster art.

"The Many Saints of Newark" is good, but not good enough to join that groundbreaking company. It's a thrill to hear the series theme song over the film's final credits -- "woke up this morning/got yourself a gun" -- but it's also a reminder of the power this movie is missing.