29th Street (1991) Danny Aiello, Anthony LaPaglia, Lainie Kazan, Frank Pesce, Robert Forster, Ron Karabatsos, Rick Aiello Movie Review

29th Street (1991)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Anthony LaPaglia in 29th Street (1991)

A Miracle on 29th Street

Most people if they won the first New York State lottery would be happy but for Frank Pesce, Jr. (Anthony LaPaglia)it is an absolute nightmare. You see Frank was born lucky, he ended up in one hospital and the one he should have been born in burned down. Frank's charmed life leads to things happening from him becoming irresponsible when he was young as no matter what things would work out whilst his hard working father, Frank Pesce, Sr. (Danny Aiello), never had any luck and over time has run up some gambling debts. But when Frank brought that lottery ticket it opened a whole can of worms for him and his family.

I will stop there with the synopsis for "29th Street" and basically say that "29th Street" starts with Frank being arrested for causing a disturbance after his name is announced as the winner of the lottery and then we basically get the story of Frank Pesce, Jr's life, which is loosely based on a true story. As such we see how he leads some thing of a charmed life where everything seems to work out for him. Take the night he gets stabbed in the street, if he hadn't been stabbed and ended up in hospital the doctors wouldn't have discovered a tumour and saved his life. But we see that whilst Frank leads a charmed life his father's life goes from bad to worse with everything leading up to the night of the lottery. I won't divulge anymore of the story other than to say to find an ending it does so a little too neatly for my tastes.

Danny Aiello and Lainie Kazan in 29th Street (1991)

But the major thing about "29th Street" is that it certainly has an air of "Goodfellas" about with the Pesce family coming from a community where wise guys would meet at a diner on the street corner. We even see various members of the Pesce family rubbing shoulders with mobsters whilst there is plenty of yelling in the Pesce household as well. But this isn't just a "Goodfellas" knock-off which also has a certain Christmas element to it as the strength of the story ends up taking over to make it more than just another movie about a family and the mob. And because I don't want to spoil "29th Street" for anyone who haven't watched it before let me just say there is a beautiful positive side to this drama almost Capra-esque as the story unfolds.

What this all boils down to is that "29th Street" is a nice little movie which combines styles reminiscent of various movies with the main one being "Goodfellas". But whilst some really love this movie it is just for me a good movie, with a good cast and a nice style.


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