The love story was better than most other gangster or action films where the protagonist falls in love with a beautiful woman just because he has a penchant for a beautiful face/figure. And because of the cinematic window dressing. Out of everything else in Carlito's life that was sucking him back into old, troubled ways, Gail was the "face that didn't change," the person, and symbol, that enabled him to find goodness in a mired past and still have hope in a better future, even when everything and everyone else he's ever known revelead themselves for what they really were: out for themselves.
Carlito might have been *cheesy* at times, I credit the music in the movie for that only, but it was also absolutely honest in what it depicted: the danger that follows even you even after you're done chasing it, the people you can never trust, and the improbability to leave a lifestyle that offerss zero honesty, hope, or chance of redemption.
This film wasn't flashy. It was the answer to what happens to the leads who've lead that life. What really happens. In place of the unstoppable tough guys is a rich story with an age-old lesson that many still haven't and won't ever learn.
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