Yonkers Joe Review
By David Kempler
Snake Eyes
Scam artist films are some of my favorites for pure enjoyment. Watching an intricately laid out con game, whether it be in a drama or a comedy can be sizzling, rewarding stuff. Robert Celestino has entered the fray by writing and directing "Yonkers Joe." The under-appreciated Chazz Palminteri is the con artist this time around and he does a serviceable, if unspectacular job in the role.
When we first meet Mr. Joe, he is hanging with his buddies at Yonkers Raceway, a harness racing track that has seen far better days, just like Joe. After watching his first minor league scam, there seems to be hope that the ride to the big con and the con itself might be fun, perhaps even thrilling. No such luck.
Celestino commits the grave error of trying to combine the story with a sub-plot that never quite meshes with Yonkers Joe and his fellow con artists. Yonkers Joe has a 21 year-old son, Joe Jr. (Tom Guiry), with Down Syndrome but his connection to his son is barely a thin strand. Aside from paying to keep him in a special school, he has almost nothing to do with him. It's clear that this lack of a relationship will have to be addressed and dealt with. When their lives are forced into closer quarters, "Yonkers Joe" degenerates into a formula that can only be classified as incredibly weak and forced.
The usual expected nonsense follows with a few scant scenes worth staying awake for. Joe's girlfriend, Janice (Christine Lahti), is one of the few bright spots, as a moral rudder, but she is powerless to elevate this mundane and at times uncomfortably poorly-executed effort.
You can make a con artist charming. You can make him detestable. What you can't make him is both, unless the writing, directing and acting are all off the charts great. None of these things occur here. Instead we are left with an insanely lame attempt to make us feel good about the bonding between father and son and the redemption of all that is evil or misguided. It is hard to understand how "Yonkers Joe" ever made it to the screen. Thankfully, you can avoid this easily enough by failing to buy a ticket. If you do end up seeing "Yonkers Joe", you will have become another victim of the con.
