Martin Scorsese is one of the best living film makers and has produced films that will be studied and heralded as classic for decades to come but The Irishmanisn’t one of them.

Adapted from the book I Heard You Paint Houses the film proports to tell the organized crime life of Frank Sheeran, the titled Irishman, a teamster and his telling a hitman through which the most infamous mafia action occurred.

Let me get this out of the way, I don’t the story from this mafia Forrest Gump. There’s no documentary or corroborating evidence to support these wild claims and it all strikes me tall tales told by a braggart. So, the film as history is in my opinion bunk but how is it as entertainment?

Far too long.

I have no issue with long movies and there are several that live happily in my library. Endings are critical to stories be they film or prose and knowing when to end is vital. The central relationship in The Irishman is between Frank and Teamster Union President Jimmy Hoffa. Without getting into spoilers the relationship naturally ends with Hoffa’s unsolved disappearance and yet the film continues to roll for nearly an hour. No other relationship in the film, not with either of Frank’s wives or his estranged daughters, or with his friend and mafia boss Russell Bufalino carry the emotional weight or character arcs that come with Frank and Hoffa. The scenes with Frank and Hoffa provide a character arc that should provide a sense of completion, that informing us that from here there is no more character growth for Frank that really matters. Instead we meander through the waning years of his life, in prison, out of prison, the slow decay that come with age, all without any sense of meaning, purpose, or message. The film is narrated by Frank and throughout its run time we return to the nursing home where he spends his final days as he visibly tells us his life but there is no one he is telling it to. The author of the book isn’t present, there is literally no one to hear this fabrication save us.

Reuniting with many of his famous collaborators Scorsese shows is brilliance as a filmmaker. The faults in The Irishman are entirely in its scripting and its editing. Cut down to two or maybe two and a quarter hours this would have played as thoroughly entertaining fiction but at its present length it is a meandering mess.