Little Odessa

An impressive if uneven first feature (1994), strong on atmospherics and weak on certain family links and ethnic details, by young New York writer-director James Gray. Tim Roth plays a hit man for Brooklyn’s Russian Mafia; Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell play his elderly parents (quite impressively), and Edward Furlong is his kid brother. Up to a point, this is yet another crime picture; beyond that point are some style and feeling that make you remember it longer than most of the others. Moira Kelly costars. (JR)

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