Witness Protection
Director Richard Pearce on DVD

Amazon.com
Lifelong Mafia hood Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore) wakes up one night to discover a price on his head and nowhere to go but to the cops...under protection as a federal witness. Based on the article "The Invisible Family" by Robert Sabbag, this HBO original film drops us into the volatile period between lives as Bats takes his family off the streets and into a federal bunker where they begin shaping their new identities. Surrounded by surveillance cameras and locked in an apartment that feels like a fancy prison block, the formerly prosperous family starts to suffocate and self-destruct while it becomes clear just what a "readjustment of expectations" really means. Sizemore is excellent as the hotheaded gangster paralyzed by helplessness, but Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is especially moving as the once-hopeful wife who buckles as her husband's secrets and lies are revealed. It's an interesting dynamic The swaggering goodfella forced into a working-class life elicits little sympathy, but the toll on the family torn apart by recriminations, blame, and frustration is affecting and powerful. They're undergoing a crash course in family therapy with federal official Forest Whitaker as their tough-love crisis counselor. Director Richard Pearce has made some excellent portraits of families under pressure (Country, Heartland), and while the screenplay at times feels contrived, the drama is always potent.

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