State of Grace

In this 1990 neo-noir film, Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) returns to his old stomping grounds in Hell’s Kitchen with a score to settle. Along the way he hooks up with childhood friend Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman), now a heavy in the Irish mob, and recommences his romance with Kathleen Flannery (Robin Wright). Gary Oldman’s swashbuckling villainy remains one of the most memorable character archetypes of cinema in the 1990s, its full impact being felt commercially here for the first time in director Phil Joanou's film. As the self-destructive Jackie Flannery, Oldman found what existed as the titular condition for his character; for Jackie, loyalty was the state of grace he pursued at the expense of everything else. His Jackie picked sides as if he were a nine-year-old lining up a squad for a game of full-court basketball. It didn't matter that the game was beyond his ability to play it—he devoted himself to finding the right guys and committing to it. The delight in Jackie's eyes when he rekindles his friendship with long lost childhood pal Terry shows that the kid beneath Jackie's fits of sudden, terrifying violence and alcoholism still lives. Ironically and sadly, he douses himself with booze to keep that kid at bay. Oldman understood that Jackie is the only real innocent in State of Grace.