Ten Benny

A darling at last year's Sundance Film Festival, Ten Benny is a punchy little crime drama that plays out in the working-class shadows of northern New Jersey. First-time filmmaker Eric Bross obviously envisions his tale of redemption, which centers on a wide-eyed Italian-American with big plans and even bigger flaws, as his Mean Streets opus, but he falls way short of the mark, though his film is buoyed by a string of fine performances, most crucially from Adrien Brody as Ray, the mercurial protagonist. Ray dabbles as a shoe salesman but dreams of someday owning his own little bodega and marrying his high-school sweetheart. The plot lurches forward with the pedestrian swagger of the American Dream until Ray decides to jump-start his future plans by getting in deep to a nefarious loan shark (a wonderfully over-the-top James Moriarty) and embarking on a gambling campaign that rivals the foolish panache of Edward Norton's lovable loser in Rounders. To add further fuel to Bross's contrived fire, Ray cheats on his girlfriend, and she in turn runs into the arms of one of his buddies. The film unfolds like a soap opera staged in Palookaville. As for the dubious title, it refers to Paul Newman's 10B shoe size -- and indeed, if it weren't for the dead-on performances from Brody and Moriarty, Bross would be in need of cinematic Odor Eaters.

-- Tom Meek