You don't expect family values from Abel Ferrara, and that's about the only thing new in The Funeral. Otherwise, it's his standard entertaining mix of outrageousness, absurdity, over-the-top acting, pathological macho behavior, and tormented Catholicism.

Call it Bad Mafia Lieutenant. Set in the '30s for no reason other than the period politics and music, it's the story of the three Tempio brothers. Ray (Christopher Walken) is the eldest, the head of a family business that specializes in kneecapping scabs for the local union. Chez (Chris Penn) has inherited their dad's periodic insanity; he fears that he too will end up a suicide. Johnny (Vincent Gallo), the youngest, is a communist. When his two brothers decide to switch their services to the capitalists on the urging of Gaspare (Benicio Del Toro), another gangster, Johnny breaks with them. "You're in bed with him," he retorts when Chez suggests he should not sleep with Gaspare's wife. No one doubts Gaspare is responsible when Johnny gets whacked.

Related through murky flashbacks during the three days of Johnny's funeral -- one flashback appears to be from the point of view of the corpse -- the film does have moments of power. A scene in which a 13-year-old Ray undergoes a Sicilian-style "bar mitzvah" is chilling, and the ending jolts. For the most part, though, The Funeral is a plodding, solemn rite. At the Copley Place and the Janus and in the suburbs.