For no explainable reason I had Goodfellas-esque expectations for this film when I should have anticipated something more akin to “City of God”. Contrary to my assumptions the violence was actually fairly limited considering the genre. All five storylines were interesting and I was affected by each, but I would have been more drawn in to the film if the scope had been narrower.
The director actually feels that he left too much out wanted to make the book into a mini series, but the studio demanded a feature film. I enjoyed it much more than the over worshipped “City of God”, but was just way too excited going in not come out a little underwhelmed.
