'' is a 2006 crime film written and directed by
Wayne Kramer and released by
New Line Cinema . The film stars
Paul Walker ,
Cameron Bright ,
Vera Farmiga ,
Chazz Palminteri and
Alex Neuberger . It was released in the
United States on
February 24 ,
2006 .
The film is rated R by the
MPAA for 'pervasive strong brutal violence and language, sexuality and drug content'.
Joey Gazelle (
Paul Walker ) is a low level mob flunkie whose role is to dispose of "hot" guns from mob killings. We soon find out that Joey has been hiding these guns in the drywall of his basement, instead of tossing them in the river. Joey has a 10 year-old son Nicky (
Alex Neuberger ). His best friend Oleg Yugorsky (
Cameron Bright ) lives next-door. Nicky and Oleg witness Joey hiding some guns from a botched drug deal. Oleg's stepfather Anzor "Duke" Yugorsky (
Karel Roden ) beats both Oleg and Oleg's mother. Oleg steals one of Joey's guns -- a snub-nosed
.38 (used to kill a dirty cop) -- and shoots Anzor with it. He survives. Later Oleg tells Anzor he is sorry. Anzor sais it does not matter. However, Oleg clarifies that he is sorry he did not kill Anzor.
Things would be bad enough if the stepfather didn't happen to be the nephew of a psychotic Russian mob boss who happens to be in business with Joey's crew on a gasoline scam. But now Joey's also got the surviving dirty cop (Palminteri) from the botched drug deal on his case and that hot .38 out there on the street, changing hands in an underworld of freaks, pimps, hookers and
Pedophiles . As well as Oleg, who can connect Joey to the gun. And even if Joey can make it through the night, he's still got to answer to his wife Teresa (
Vera Farmiga ).
Oleg meets a friendly prostitute. Also he is invited by a seemingly friendly couple into their home, where two other children are , supposedly the couple's children. However, when Teresa arrives at the house, looking for him, they deny that he is there and even that they have ever seen him. Teresa insists in having a look herself in the house, and they let her in. The couple says only their own two children are there, and they show them sleeping. Teresa finds it suspect that no photographs of these children are on display. She finds Oleg in a cupboard, with a bag over his head, slowly suffocating. She saves him. The couple offers her $100,000 for just leaving with Oleg, but she does not accept the money: she calls the police to report a shooting, and then kills the couple, thus saving also the other two children who presumably are being, or would have been
Abused and perhaps killed.
One of the properties with which Oleg is described for the purpose of the search is, justly, "he never smiles". Only at the end, when he is invited to visit a sports match, he smiles.
The film is heavily influenced by the films of
Walter Hill ,
Brian De Palma , and
Sam Peckinpah .
The film opened on 1611 screens in the
United States and grossed a total of 3.1 million dollars in its opening weekend.
