GOD’S POCKET

US, 2014, 88 minutes, Colour.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Richard Jenkins, Christina Hendricks, Caleb Landry Jones, Eddie Marsan.
Directed by John Slattery.

The actual place, God’s Pocket, is not nearly as cosy as the title might suggest. It is a tough-looking location in the city of Philadelphia. The action takes place in the 1980s.

This is a particularly grim film, enabling the audience to peer into the life of a number of families in the area, their personal relationships, their work – with the touch of the criminal – and the violence and cover-ups which are part of the code of God’s Pocket.

It is with regret that we note that it is one of the last films of Philip Seymour Hoffman, a strong performance as always, father and husband, worker, small-time criminal, partly at home in God’s Pocket but reminded, when the chips are down, that he is not a native of the place despite years living there. He is still an outsider.

Christina Hendricks plays his wife. Caleb Landry Jones portrays her son, seemingly sympathetic as he goes off to work on a building site, but a loud-mouth with little respect for anyone, making racist jibes against a black worker. The old man gets a bar and hits the young man, killing him. His mother has a feel that the official report, that the young man was hit by a falling object, is a cover-up and urges her husband to find out. He makes enquiries, eventually does some confronting of the people concerned, but uncovers nothing.

He lists the help of a friend, Arthur (John Turturro) who has a number of connections, but the investigation takes a dour turn when local enmities erupt in violence.

There is some very black humour concerning the hijacking of trucks filled with meat and attempts to sell them to local bars and butchers, and the very mercenary funeral director (Eddie Marsan) refuses to conduct the funeral unless he is paid and puts the body waiting for burial out in the street. Then it is stowed in the truck which is involved in an accident, the corpse going hurtling down a hill…

The film as well acted, and audiences interested in the cast will want to watch it, but most people in real life as well is in the cinema may want to avoid spending time in the grim and glum God’s Pocket.

1. The title, the implications of the title? Audiences discovering it was a place, the working class locale, the irony of the title?

2. Philadelphia, the neighbourhood of God’s Pocket, work, homes, shops, building sites, funeral parlours, bars? Musical score? Real, authentic? God’s Pocket and the residents, isolated, wary of newcomers?

3. The opening, the funeral, introduction to the people, seeing the clashes, the punching of the funeral director, and then the film going back three days?

4. Michael, his marriage, relationship with his wife, her son? Waking for the day, seemingly pleasant, the son going to the building site, the workers, his harshness, his racist comments, the old man hitting him, his death? The workers and the cover story, the accident? The investigation by the police? The reports?

5. Michael, his life, marriage, his friendship with Arturo, his other friends, trucks, the hijackings, the meat, the sales, the clients? Jobs, his wife asking him to get information about her son’s death, asking Arturo, his asking around? The financial situation, needing to pay debts, the truck and the meat? Trying to make a deal with the funeral director, his alleged friendship, obstinacy? Putting the corpse outside the funeral parlour? It’s being put in the truck, falling out on the street? The touches of black comedy?

6. Michael’s wife, her role as wife, mother, home? Her feelings? That her son was murdered? urging Michael, the interviews with the police?

7. Arturo, his age, work, strong-minded wife, her work? The garden? Asked to find out the truth? His debts, his connections, the thugs coming to his house, his wife shooting?

8. The author, as a writer for the paper, his age, his becoming sick of his work, repeating his articles, the talk with the editor? His drinking? Burnt out? His visiting Michael’s wife on the information, and interest in the story, the personal attraction, discussions, the sexual encounter, the effect on the wife – and everybody at the bar knowing about it?

9. The return to the funeral scene, the priest, the ceremony, the clashes, the punches?

10. Michael going to the bar, being welcomed, the past, the customers and their talking, the arrival of the author, his being seen as an outsider, Michael as an outsider, the various stories, the writer not realising what was going to happen, going into the bar, his being besieged by the men, their becoming a mob, bashing him?

11. A slice of life – with more than a pessimistic touch?