Romance and Cigarettes

The title says it all, steamy romance with fire and smoke. John Turturro directs but does not appear in this full-on musical. That's okay because he uses the kind of actors who make this tuner work including Kate Winslet, Mandy Moore, Chris Walken, Susan Sarandon, James Gandolfini, Steve Buscemi, sister Aida, Bobby Cannavale, Mary-Louise Parker, there are others.
Set among East Coast working class houses, some of them on fire, this amazing cast belts out standards like Delilah or A Man Without Love, in this case with Gandolfini or Walken singing along on the soundtrack with Tom Jones or Englebert Humperdinck. In the case of I Want Candy the song is voiced by Mandy, Aida and Mary-Louise. Romance and Cigarettes sits firmly between less adult musical fare like Hairspray and more conceptualized works like Across the Universe. Oddly Romance and Cigarettes has been on the shelf for a couple of years and is only now getting a small release.
Winslet in particular embodies the heat and passion in the film's spine. There are randy provocative scenes on display here, this is a film that shows a lot of love. It needs some in return in the way of adventurous audiences ready for something worthwhile and different.