The Movie

Ginostra is a crime-thriller about an FBI agent, Italian Mafia, and a plot about a murdered federal witness. The movie was written and directed by Manuel Pradal in 2002 (France). Chances are you have never heard of the film, as it was originally in limited release overseas and at various independent film festivals. In short, Ginostra was not a big hit. What you can expect is a slow-paced crime-thriller that does not provide much of a thrill or excitement on any level.

Matt Benson (Harvey Keitel) is an FBI Agent from New York. He is assigned to work in Italy. Joining him is his wife Jessie (Andie MacDowell) and five-year old daughter Tina. The Italian government puts Matt and his family in a nice house with an advanced security system and an entourage of guards. In charge of their safety is Giovanni Gigli (Stefano Dionisi). In addition to protection, Giovanni, as an Italian agent, assists Matt on his case.

Matt's first duty is to interview a young child, Ettore Greco (Mattia De Martino). Ettore is the sole survivor from a car bombing, which resulted in the death of his family. The Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) was responsible. Matt wants to know what Ettore knows about the car bomb that took his family's lives. He is convinced the boy knows the truth or at least has a strong lead on the killers. Unfortunately, the Mafia wants the boy killed and the FBI does not frighten them. So, Matt takes Ettore into his protection and endangers his own family in the process.

As the story unfolds, it becomes known that the reason Ettore's family was killed by the Mafia was to silence his father. Ettore's father had made a deal with the FBI to testify against the Mafia. This is the real reason Matt is so interested in the murder of Ettore's family and why he came to Italy. He was the agent who made the deal and he wants to find out who in the Justice Department leaked the information about the deal.

In Italy, Matt seeks help from Marty Del Piero (Harry Dean Stanton). Del Piero is a retired FBI agent who is living in Italy. Matt and Marty were friends since early in their careers when they worked together in New York. Del Piero has a cloudy past and a dirty secret that he intends to keep hidden at all costs. Complicating the story are other individuals who Matt trusts, but should not. There is also a volcano on Ginostra about to erupt, which threatens everyone and everything. All throughout, Matt has to keep his true intentions hidden from his wife and daughter, while protecting them as he gets closer to the truth.

As an overall movie, Ginostra fails on many levels. The story itself is pretty dull with little material that is suspenseful or thrilling. Instead, it proves to be a slow-going film with little interest or excitement. The movie might have been stronger with a clearer plot or shorter runtime (it runs for over two hours, but feels like four.) But even so, the movie still suffers from a lackluster storyline. The fact of the matter is that Ginostra has a rather simplistic plot with predictable plot twists, weak characters, and almost no entertainment value.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen color, which is encapsulated in a 1.78:1 ratio format. The picture quality is pretty good, but it does have noticeable visual defects (grain and some compression artifacts).

Audio:
The release comes with English audio tracks in 5.1 Dolby digital surround and 2.0 Dolby digital stereo. The 5.1 track is much richer than the 2.0. However, the feature is not sound intensive and either audio track is sufficient for the needs of the feature (primarily dialogue).

For non-spoken options, there are subtitles in English and Spanish. Note that there are two English subtitle options. The first provides subtitles for Italian dialogue and the second provides subtitles for both English and Italian dialogue.

Extras:
There are no extras included with this DVD release.

Final Thoughts:
Ginostra is a crime-thriller about an FBI agent who goes to Italy to uncover the truth about a murdered federal witness. The only link to the murder is the dead man's son, who has something to hide. The agent also finds there are more secrets, as those he works with in the area have hidden agendas. In this spirit, he also tries to hide his true purpose in Italy from his wife. As for the quality of Ginostra, it is a lackluster movie that moves at a place that is so slow. The movie is really hard to sit through, as next-to-nothing makes it entertaining or engaging. Skip it.