Mob film cliche s muddle 'Rules'
If you have any doubt that the greatness of "The Sopranos " can be laid at the feet of executive producer David Chase , "Brooklyn Rules " will clear up the matter. The new film is written by Terence Winter , who has scripted more episodes of the HBO series than anyone but Chase and has two Emmys to show for it. If anyone should know how to take a Brooklyn-set, mobster-garnished coming-of-age movie deep, it should be him.
Somewhat shockingly, "Rules" manages to be both personal and generic -- a heartfelt saga of three Bensonhoist pals that treads sloppily on ground covered by Martin Scorsese and many others. When "Brooklyn Rules" brings the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil " up on the soundtrack early on, you have to wonder whether the filmmakers are consciously aping "Mean Streets " and "Goodfellas " or have just absorbed those movies into their DNA.
If so, too many cliche s and not enough energy have come along for the ride. "Brooklyn Rules" is told (and told, and told; this is a movie with a bad case of the narrative-track yammers) from the vantage point of Michael (Freddie Prinze Jr. ), a tough kid with a smooth exterior and big ambitions. He's at Columbia -- "a jerk from Brooklyn in the Ivy League" -- with eyes on a law degree and a blond Manhattanite classmate named Ellen (Mena Suvari of "American Beauty").
Back in the neighborhood, his two best friends are vain Carmine (Scott Caan , hitting some of the same notes his dad did in "The Godfather ") and sweet, religious Bobby (Jerry Ferrara , Turtle from HBO's "Entourage "). It's the mid-1980s and the outer borough mob wars are heating up; there's word of a new man named Gotti out in Queens.
The local wiseguy is Caesar Manganaro , and you can tell how soft "Brooklyn Rules" is at its center from the indistinctness of Alec Baldwin's performance. The actor doesn't get a lot of screen time, but even when he's using a deli meat slicer to sever a potential rival's ear, you sense he senses he's been here before. So have we.
The movie contrasts Carmine's slow rise in Caesar's outfit with Michael's headstrong attempts to conquer Columbia and Ellen. (The latter is supposed to be Tribeca-hip, but Suvari is too bland to have any visible edges; she seems on loan from Santa Monica.) Eventually the hero trades punches with a hair-trigger Mafioso (Christian Maelen ), with predictable last-act results. If the producers couldn't secure the rights to Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young ," it probably wasn't for lack of trying.
The saddest part is that "Brooklyn Rules" has the feel of a story that's close, maybe too close, to someone's real life yet pales in comparison to "A Bronx Tale " and last year's "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints ." The actors try -- Prinze is pretty good and Caan is better than that -- but the flabby, listless direction from Michael Corrente ("Outside Providence ," "Federal Hill ") flatlines the movie's pulse. Corrente is from Rhode Island, and maybe that's the problem. Why bring in a hired gun from outside the neighborhood if he's only going to get lost?
Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com. For more on movies, go to boston.com/ae/ movies/blog. 