CHARACTER CAPER
A scene from 'The Good Thief'
Buy movie posters at AllPosters.com
Courtesy Photo
"THE GOOD THIEF"
*** stars
109 minutes | Rated: R
NY/LA: Wednesday, April 2, 2003
LIMITED: Friday, April 11, 2003
Directed by Neil Jordan

Starring Nick Nolte, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Tcheky Karyo, Said Taghmaoui, Gerard Darmon, Marc Lavoine, Sarah Bridges, Ouassini Embarek, Emir Kusturica, Ralph Fiennes, Mark Polish, Michael Polish



This film received an Honorable Mention on the Best of 2003 list.


 FEATURE LINKS
Read our interview with Neil Jordan Read our 1999 interview with
director Neil Jordan


 COUCH CRITIQUE
   SMALL SCREEN SHRINKAGE: 45%
   WIDESCREEN: RECOMMENDED

If ever there was a movie that required paying close attention while watching on video, this is it. Between the rapid style of dialogue, all the accents and the characters who speak under their breath and/or mumble, you really have to be on the ball as a viewer -- or use the DVD's subtitle feature.

   VIDEO RELEASE: 08.19.2003
 DVD SPOTLIGHT
No exciting features here. Not even a trailer. Just a cable-TV promo featurette that's not worth your time. But Jordan's commentary track is a good listen if you've seen the film two or three times and know some of its nuances. He speaks of a lot of atmospheric detail - from the music to the photography - and also addresses the issue of the film's aforementioned unusual style of sometimes hard-to-follow banter.

SOUND & PICTURE
Both are pristine. In fact, the sound is so good that the difficult dialogue is easier to understand than it was in the theater.

RANDOM THOUGHT
What's with the generic collage box art? The original poster was beautiful, compelling and a reflection of the movie's themes. Why not use that?


  BUY IT HERE
SPECS
RATIO: 1.85:1 (16x9 enhanced)
DUBS: Spanish
SUBS: English, Spanish

DVD RATING: **1/2



 OTHER REVIEWS/COMING SOON
 
  • Heist flicks
  • Neil Jordan
  • Nick Nolte
  • Tcheky Karyo
  • Said Taghmaoui
  • Emir Kusturica
  • Ralph Fiennes
  • Mark Polish
  • Michael Polish


  •  LINKS for this film
    Official site
    at movies.yahoo.com
    at Rotten Tomatoes
    at Internet Movie Database
    Watch the trailer (apple.com)
    Nolte's narcotics-informed turn as an addict 'Thief' even more compelling than exciting heist in remake of 'Bob Le Flambeur'

    By Rob Blackwelder

    There's a sad, compulsive, edge-of-the-abyss desperation to Nick Nolte's intuitive and informed performance as Bob, the heroin-addicted ex-filch and professional gambler title character of Neil Jordan's "The Good Thief."

    There's a strung-out savoir-faire to his addiction-driven way of life in the underbelly of beautiful Nice in the South of France. He's sleep-deprived (it shows in his eyes and in his mumbled speech). He's broke (but that changes from day to day). He's a washout (and he's OK with that). But he's also cagey, cunning, collected and quick-witted enough to recognize an opportunity too good to pass up.

    So when Raoul (Gerard Darmon), his most trusted compatriot from his days as a crook, comes to him with a plan for an almost impossibly elaborate heist worth tens of millions of dollars, Bob seizes the opportunity to trade in his drug addiction for the more stimulating high of gambling with danger, excitement, prison and potential wealth.

    Remaking Jean Pierre Melville's "Bob Le Flambeur" -- an innovative 1955 noir film that was also a precursor of the French New Wave movement -- writer-director Jordan adds a palpable contemporary complexity to this stylish but drug-hazed thriller. The addiction themes run deeper, helping to create a more intricate personality for Nolte to play -- and providing Jordan with both intense drama (Bob handcuffs himself to his bed while going through terrible withdrawals) and punchy humor. ("Remember the '80s, Bob?" asks Raoul. "No," Bob replies.)

    The original film's plot, involving a safe heist from a Monte Carlo casino, is included in "The Good Thief," but as a decoy for a sophisticated high-tech plan to pilfer a dozen priceless Impressionist paintings from the casino, which is even more complicated than it seems because the art works on the walls are first-class fakes. Bob and his reassembled crew of eccentric felons are after the originals -- secured in the laser-alarmed vault basement of a virtual fortress across the street -- which the casino would never report stolen because that would expose the joint's decorative finery, designed to lure an elite class of gambler, as counterfeit.

    With the help of the greedy Russian technician who designed the vault, they have everything planned to the last detail -- Bob has even counted on being double-crossed by a snitch. But even so, all does not go according to plan.

    Jordan ("The Crying Game," "Interview With the Vampire," "The End of the Affair") moves the story along at a very quick clip (don't leave to get popcorn, you'll never catch up) yet maintains a narrative haziness indicative of Bob's still drug-addled mind. This does wonders for the film's atmosphere, but coupled with the twisting plot it also invites some confusion. The scene in which Bob's crew begins to bypass the incredibly elaborate security around the paintings can be hard to follow, mostly because the Russian who explains it all has a thick accent and a tendency to mumble, just like Nolte.

    In fact, the most distracting problem with "The Good Thief" is that almost everyone seems to speak with the same rapid, on-the-ball dry wit in the same muffled, syncopated rhythms, no matter their age or their poise, no matter if they're junkies or immigrants who speak English poorly. Once your ear adjusts to the dialect (for lack of a better word), the banter itself is enjoyably sharp. But there's barely a pause for thought in any conversation.

    Nolte gets away with this himself because underneath Bob's untidy exterior you can see the wheels of his mind are constantly spinning, which is a testament to the actor's talent (this is his most riveting performance since 1996's "Mother Night") and his willingness to tap his own well-publicized battles with addiction.

    It's also an element of the picture's recurring duality theme that includes the two heists, a pair of casino-guard twins (filmmaker brothers Mark and Michael Polish) who want in on what they think is a robbery scam, the double-cross that Bob is smart enough to plan for (then he gets sideswiped from another direction anyway), and the pivotal role of a sexually savvy yet still naive Eastern European nymphette (long-limbed, baby-faced, husky-voiced newcomer Nutsa Kukhianidze) whom Bob saves from a pimp and takes under his protection.

    Inventively edited -- most notably with quick freeze-frames that feel like exclamation points or moments of narcotic clarity -- and aided by a pulsating, multi-ethnic jazz club score "The Good Thief" is really just a One Last Big Score caper picture. But its characters -- especially Bob -- are so vividly realized and multi-dimensional that it's easy to become wrapped up in their personal fates and almost forget about the heist.

    This is exactly what happens when Bob, being heavily scrutinized by a cop who has become his friend and nemesis over the years, enters the casino on the night of the heist to draw the attention of the tipped-off police. When Bob starts winning big -- really big -- for the first time in his life, the paintings and the casino vault suddenly feel like background noise, drowned out by the din of his precarious good fortune.




    ORDER IT NOW


    Buy from Amazon

    Rent from Netflix

    or Search for
     







     



    SEARCH SPLICEDwire
     
    powered by FreeFind
    SPLICEDwire home
    Online Film Critics Society
    ©SPLICEDwire
    All Rights Reserved
    Return to top
    Current Reviews
    SPLICEDwire Home