The Funeral begins as a domestic drama. When young Johnny (Vincent Gallo) is gunned down in the street, the rest of his Italian-American clan gather together to mourn his death. Flashbacks reveal bits of Johnny's life in Depression-era New York. In an age when Mafia families were establishing their first ties to organized labor, Johnny finds himself drawn into the world of the communist movement--a move that, at times, puts him at odds with his decidedly capitalistic brothers (Christopher Walken and Chris Penn). Gallo (the creepy guy from those Calvin Klein ads) spends most of the movie lying dead in a coffin, but comes across appropriately slate-faced and mysterious in the flashbacks. Ferrara, more than ever before, does a pitch-perfect job of capturing his time and place, and the details ring with authenticity.

Most touched by Johnny's death are, of course, his older brothers Ray (Walken) and Chez (Penn). Ray is the iron-willed family patriarch by proxy, doing his best to take over for a long-dead father. Chris is the sensitive, possibly unstable, middle brother, who would rather be behind the bar of his nightclub than take care of "family business." Despite the pleas of those around him, Ray decides to hunt down his little brother's killer. Initially, Ray sets his sights on a rival gangster (Benicio Del Toro), but things get complicated and Ray starts asking himself some difficult questions. Here's where The Funeral really starts cooking and mutates from a domestic drama to an existential revenge flick.

Revenge and Catholic guilt are two of Ferrara's favorite topics dating all the way back to his first major release Ms. 45. Here Ferrara gets even more philosophical. On his quest for vengeance, Ray frequently raises the question, "When do we stop pulling the trigger?" In one scene, he asks a fellow gangster why they must continue to gun each other down in the streets when, if they only got together, they could take over the world. A parallel with today's violent street gangs seems almost obvious. The cruelest irony is that Ray still finds himself unable to escape this trap of violence. Choice is the central issue in The Funeral, and all the major characters are faced with at least one major choice. Most startling is the choice made by middle brother Chez. His choice affects the family the most and leads to a shocking (to say the least) ending.

The Funeral represents one of Abel Ferrara's most mature works. It's a major step up from the relatively confused existentialism of his neo-vampire flick The Addiction. It's also a minor step away from the brutal nihilism of his landmark Bad Lieutenant. Ferrara has always been a kind of bipolar director who wants to shock and enlighten his audience. Here, he manages to do both.