Every return to a motherly place left long back is a time for confrontation and regrets. Beyond the happiness of the person spotted the road to be walked again, it is the footsteps which were left marked along as mistakes and memories. “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” is about people loving each other so much and how they overdo it to drive off each other. The space which is solemnly missed in one and the long for to be closer clashes amongst the laughs and smiles to culminate into an explosion by the surroundings.Dito Montiel the writer of the book of same name wrote the screenplay and directed the film which is an indie flick relying on characters. It is his life’s commentary. There is a Monty in real life brought out with elegance by Chazz Palminteri, there is Antonio toughened in physique and beckons love from Dito. Antonio as a kid is played by Channing Tatum and later as an adult by Eric Roberts while Shila LaBeouf plays the kid Dito. Robert Downey Jr. walks down the lane of left out pieces of his past as the adult Dito. This is a film driven by these people in a neighbourhood flourishing with graffiti and rising tension in the territorial demarcation of dominance and violence.
The film characteristically begins with adult Dito saying about the book he successfully has written on his childhood life. He says so and so is going to die and it is not a plot revelation. It is not and it is not a plot as it is based on director’s story. His father Monty is sick and he goes back we come to know after many years. We move to 1986 as Dito and Antonio with their friend Nerf (Peter Tambakis) and Antonio’s brother Giuseppe (Adam Scarimblo) walk in the streets and taunt the girls. The girls like them even when Antonio is arrogant and acts like a prick. Dito is the sheltered boy of Antonio and when both enter the house of Dito, Monty is delighted. More than Dito, he respects and adores Antonio. The house sequence with Monty, Dito, Antonio and Dito’s mother Flori (Dianne Wiest) tells everything we want to know about them and their love for each other. It is casual and they understand the lingo.
All the films about the kid days have the adult characters complain on them but also when something goes wrong, they say they are just kids. How much of our actions in kid matters when we grow up? A lot and as an adult we comfort ourselves on the crazy times and stupid mistakes but making amends is something which rarely happens. Dito has to face it. He sees his friend Nerf (Scott Campbell) living with his mom while deciding his life never going to change. Seeing Dito and the place he left makes us to wonder the decision he took as the best one. It is as it is how the life takes on us but the way he leaves haunts him.
He loves his dad and he loves him too but in the midst of becoming their buddies he has forgotten to take up his role as needed and may be even demanded. Chazz Palminteri handles Monty with a casualness and charisma. He gels smoothly with kids than his own age. He believes that Antonio is the saviour for Dito. In heart he loves both of them equally but goes out of the way to embrace Antonio because the kid never gets it from his dad. And the loyalty to Monty by Antonio is reflected in protecting his son. More than a friend he takes him under his wings and a lot possessive too. He cannot stand the sight of the new kid Mike (Martin Compston) getting along well with Dito. He is threatened by his presence on the alien affection he brings on over Dito.
All the people are good in this film with the competition of loving each other becoming the bad consequences. The enormity of each other’s affection is immeasurable that a moment’s disrespectability of it marks a scar for life time. It takes a rude awakening to confront it. Blaming does not help and ego only dooms further misery. The child hood sweet hearts whom they taught will spend their life time together for Dito is played by lovely Melonie Diaz as kid and Rosario Dawson as adult. The meeting of Downey Jr. with Dawson is pitch perfect reflecting the flirtatious awkwardness with regret and guilt.
The suburb of Manhattan takes the yellowish tone of glowing sun making us sweat. In showing Dito’s child hood we learn the reeking violence existing in terms of simple street fight taking its form of deadly results. And in Antonio we see it masked by the affection. He does not even dare to show his true feelings for his blood brother Giuseppe. When people cannot communicate, they plunge in the random stupidity of punishing themselves. Love in relationships should not take a form in air but felt in the presence of each other. But sometimes talking out is the solution for understanding each other.
There is an addiction to a place we grew up in its boredom. The faces are same and everyday of rest of the life appears to be pale, dull and repetitive. It does not mean we hate the people but the similarity of every day scare us. The resemblance of that becomes a prison and hence run away from there for an adventurous excitement for remaining part of our life only to be stuck in a different prison. “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” is not a reminder of that place but the people who are separated by the misunderstandings and directionless love showered on their sons and daughters.
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