Heist
(2001)
It's
a good thing David Mamet is working for "us." It's a
good thing he isn't a criminal. He masterminds great
crimes for the stage and screen. Thank God this pays
him well. As a criminal, he might be unstoppable.
Sure, "Heist" is your typical "who's pulling a con on
who," genre, crime drama. But if you're going to have
such a film, you couldn't ask for a better writer than
Mamet. He's covered this ground before, in a better
film called "The
Spanish Prisoner." But here he's more wired in to
the 70's genre films.
The
dialogue here is neither as fast paced, poetic nor stylized
as Mamet's other works. This isn't, for example, the
"Glengarry Glen Ross" version of a con film. Yet there
is quite enough diamonds of Mametian dialogue in here
to make the film crystalline and crisp.
Yes,
if you're going to have a genre heist film, you might
as well have some of the best actors in America star
in it. Can you beat Gene Hackman, Danny Devito, and
Delroy Lindo for casting genius? Doubtful. Rebecca Pidgeon,
aka Mrs. Mamet, is good too, even if nepotism gets her
the role. Sam Rockwell has had better but he's stuck
in a sort of thankless role to begin with. Up against
Hackman, it's pretty hard to shine no matter what.
Mamet is a good director. He doesn't try anything particularly
cinematic but he does a good, solid job. One of the
coolest things about the film, and this involves Mamet
as scripter and director, is the amount of exposition
that is visual. For example, when cons are pulled in
the film leaving us to wonder how it was accomplished,
Mamet will give us visual clues, rather than dialogue
clues or flashbacks, to show us how it was done. This
is imaginative and inventive. It requires us to question
plot twists and take note of clues.
"Heist"
isn't going to win any awards or be a huge blockbuster
at the megaplex, but it's a solid movie with great acting,
crisp dialogue and consummate direction. It makes "The
Score," a film with a similar theme and plot that
came out earlier this year, look like crap.
Note:
Also with Patti Lupone and Ricky Jay.
More
of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click
your favorite letter to go there.
a
b c
d e
f g
h i
j k
l m
n o
p q
r s
t u
v w
x y
z
HOME
|
