Celebrated Hobbit Elijah Woods has shed the oversized ears and pointy feet to play Sean Sullivan, a young man "disappeared" by the Mob some three years before.

Only they didn't. With the help of his brother (who tossed a severed arm with Sean's watch on its wrist into the Hudson), Sean got a new identity outside the city.

His crime was to wipe out three thugs in a bar who he'd overheard planning to head across town and terminate his brother Francis (Burns).

Three years down the line and he's back and - just to make sure everybody knows - goes drinking in the boozer run by Francis' bitter "sloppy lush" ex-girlfriend.

Soon the hood is buzzing with the news that Sean is back in town...but some people are more interested than others in the whereabouts of the foolhardy comeback kid.

There's local Big Man Whitey (Malachy McCourt), who helped cover Sean's tracks, rival gangster Moran (Platt), whose men Sean wiped out, and eager cop Detective Pulaski (Michael Mulheren).

Director Edward Burns sets great store by brotherhood, Catholicism and morality but rather than complement each other these themes simply get in each other's way.

Most risible is the stereotypical view of the New York Irish with one hitman "fresh off the boat" embracing the lexicon of Colin Farrell with Tourette's Syndrome.

Woods faces the biggest task, attempting to shift attention from a role that's defined him as an actor in possibly the biggest film franchise of all time.

He doesn't really succeed, but that's mainly the fault of an underwritten role in a movie that aspires to The Godfather but veers amusingly into Tom & Jerry territory.

Hash Wednesday, more like.

Tim Evans