You can't really go wrong with de Nero who is always watchable. For once a gangster film without the continuous all action mayhem that we seem to have to suffer these days. Instead it is nicely paced, with the violence mainly implied.

The story is straightforward, a local gangster befriends a young boy and we see him growing up wide eyed and gradually no longer innocent. Meanwhile his upright father goes on driving his local bus and trying to stop his son having an unsuitable friendship. In the end thought we realise the gangster has in his own way protected the boy and even educated in the ways of the world.