On the surface, Rob The Mob looks like just another True Romance clone, with its star crossed lovers dodging bullets and getting into trouble. The only difference here is that this film is based on a true story. And not just any true story, a rather unbelievable one.
Michael Pitt and Nina Arianda play Tom and Rosie, a couple of ex-cons from Queens, New York who just got out of jail after serving time for robbing a flower shop on Valentine’s Day. They are both determined to go straight and to do so, end up working at a debt collection agency. It doesn’t take long though for Tom to find himself bored sitting in a cubicle and talking on the phone all day, and he soon skips work to find other forms of entertainment. He ends up finding this by slipping into the trial of John Gotti, the iconic American mobster and leader of the Gambino crime family in New York City.
While at the trial, Tom discovers that the mafia hangs out at a number of social clubs throughout the city, but they aren’t allowed to bring any firearms in with them. Learning of this, he gets the idea to rob the Mafia at these clubs and encourages Rosie to join him on his crime spree. Tom believes that the police will never come after them. After all, they are robbing the Mafia, not some innocent shop owner.
During their year-long crime spree they meet Jerry Cardozo (played by Ray Romano), a burned out journalist who ends up feeling empathy for the couple as they give him a renewed zest for his work. They also cross paths with crime boss Big Al Fiorello (played by Andy Garcia), who soon realizes how much of a threat these two are when they come into contact with a document that could very well bring the Mafia down.
Last weekend in Los Angeles, California, Garcia, Romano and director Raymond De Felitta dropped by the Four Seasons Hotel for the Rob The Mob press day. We had the chance to speak with the three of them as they discussed how they first became aware of this story, what they found interesting about it, how they got involved, and much more.
Check it out in the video below and be sure to catch Rob The Mob when it breaks into theatres this Friday!
