Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 03/28/2000
Sound: DD
Run Time: 104 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Monarch Video
The regulars at a shot-and-a-beer bar in a decaying working-class town are the focus of
Nick Stagliano's
drama The Florentine.
Michael Madsen plays
Whitey, who owns a bar called The Florentine where most of the guys he knows hang out. His sister
Molly (
Virginia Madsen,
Michael's real life sister) is soon to be married, and
Whitey has been saving up for a nice reception. But when her old boyfriend
Teddy (
Tom Sizemore) comes back into town, bets for the wedding would seem to be off, which may be just as well --
Whitey's buddy
Frankie (
Luke Perry) got hold of the wedding cash and lost it to
Billy Munucci (
James Belushi), a con artist with a far quicker turn of mind.
Whitey has other money problems; the bar has been mortgaged to a low-level gangster named
Joe (
Burt Young), who has been leaning on
Whitey's friend
Bobbie (
Chris Penn) to pay off his mounting gambling debts.
Bobbie is trying to stay one step ahead of
Joe, which doesn't leave him much time to patch up his ailing marriage to
Vicki (
Mary Stuart Masterson). The screenplay by
Damien Gray and
Tom Benson was adapted from the Off-Broadway
drama penned by
Gray.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
