Hell's Kitchen N.Y.C.

Gloria is from Hell’s Kitchen, a rough New York neighbourhood, and five years on is still grieving for her brother, killed during a botched robbery - an event she blames on his accomplice, Johnny. With Johnny fresh out of jail, Gloria seeks vengeance, but Johnny, who claims his innocence, has other issues - he is striving to keep his life legitimate, nurture his boxing talents, save a young street kid from a miserable future and find his missing brother. For her part Gloria also has to reckon with her mother - a drug addict whose dependence on alcohol and drugs skew her perspective. The narrative, which is violent and at times gruesome in depicting the bleak interpersonal relationships between the characters, suffers from an overabundance of incidents, veering from one tragedy to the next - a feature that undermines its ability to maintain dramaturgical energy and achieve the uncompromising impact that it strives for. With a strong redemptive tone this film explores in a melodramatic fashion, the social milieu in which it is set - a brutal environment in which criminality, conjugal violence, addiction and bloodshed are the norm. An impressive cast includes Angelina Jolie, Rosanna Arquette, William Forsythe and Mekhi Phifer.