This could have been brilliant. As it is, it's just damn good.A superb tale of friendship, loyalty and trust, Sean Penn and Gary Oldman are both absolutely fantastic, giving, for my money,the best performances of their careers. In fact, there's not a bad performance here.<br /><br />It's beautifully shot, the music is absolutely spot-on and it has that rare ability to get to you deep inside.<br /><br />It's just that the final scene is absolutely terrible. First, there's a huge slow motion overload, which for me, just doesn't fit. Second, without spoiling the ending, let's just say that Frankie's (Ed Harris)marksmanship leaves a lot to be desired, which for a mob boss is absolutely ridiculous. This is the main problem. Up and until this moment the film has been a perfect example of believable, gritty realism. Then it just throws everything away with a badly thought out, unbelievable climax.<br /><br />10/10 down to an 8/10 just like that.