A tough-talking American blue-collar drama about Jimmy Hoffa, a legendary union leader who jumped into bed with the Mafia early in his career and was eventually to pay for that with his life. Although impressively staged and set - especially in the major action sequences involving strikes by Hoffa's teamsters - by director Danny DeVito (who also plays a key role), the film is surprisingly dully written by David Mamet. The lack of colour in the words is accentuated by the one-note performance of Jack Nicholson as Hoffa, even though this might reflect the man in real life. Mamet's scenario also gives little sense of the varying times in which the film is set, several years having obviously passed on occasions. Together with dialogue that tends to the repetitive, it leads to your attention wandering from time to time. The inherent fascination of the subject just about carries it through; but, like a hot air balloon, Hoffa looks good, feels good, but hasn't much inside.

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