'Last Rites of Joe Mays': Underdog drama telegraphs its twists

Dennis Farina, an actor whose vowel sounds brand him as one of Chicago's own, eternally, is the whole show in writer-director Joe Maggio's drama. In this softhearted valentine to fences and grifters of a certain age, Farina plays a short-money hustler who, after a prolonged hospital stay, returns to his Chicago apartment only to find it has been leased to single mother Jenny (Jamie Anne Allman) and her preteen daughter (Meredith Droeger).

Michael Phillips

November 24, 2011