Mickey (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Bird (John Turturro) in contemplation

We rejoice in small towns! We love the ease in getting around places and living in neighborhoods where everybody knows your name; those neighborhoods where locking your doors is an insult to those in the community. The safety. The familiarity. All of these features of the small town will relax and calm you.

Unless there is a murder around the corner or was it an accident? John Slattery makes his directorial debut in this well-rehearsed deep dark dramedy God’s Pocket.

Jeanie (Christina Hendricks) and Mickey

Set in south Philadelphia, Slattery works hard to tease out the subtleties of living in a working class town called God’s Pocket that is inhabited by … well … let’s just say you would not want to be caught on the street after dark–alone.

The late Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Mickey Scarpato, a luckless outsider who topples over into the life in the Pocket by marriage to his wife Jeannie (played by Christina Hendricks of Mad Men fame). Jeannie’s son Leon, the town’s crime element, has been taken out by one of his co-workers, and everyone swears it was an accident. Mom refuses to accept the verdict, so Mickey has to scrounge around town to find the real story! You will appreciate Slattery’s skill in playing with our common sense notions about the working class town; and, when he disrupts them, you will want to lock your doors.

God’s Pocket plays through May 22 at The Ross.

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