|
All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Heist
|
 out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
3½ stars out of 4
|
How many double-crosses does it take to make a clever crime caper?
David Mamet knows - and he dishes them out aplenty in this tantalizing,
intricately constructed thriller. Gene Hackman plays a veteran thief whose
photograph is snapped by a security camera during a jewelry store robbery.
Knowing his career is over, he's more than ready to retire and sail around the
world with his young wife, Rebecca Pidgeon. But in order to get his payoff, he
and his team (Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay) are forced to do one last heist by
mobster Danny DeVito with his nefarious nephew (Sam Rockwell) watching their
every move. They're going to lift a shipment of Swiss gold off a Pan Geneve
cargo plane, a heist that requires intricate planning to divert airport security
and elude U.S. Customs and the F.B.I.. It would be easier if they could trust
each other - but they don't - for good reason, since there's little honor among
these thieves. Or, as Hackman, the mastermind, puts it, "Gold makes the world go
'round...Anyone can get the goods. The trick is getting away, and it's good to
have a back-up plan." The devious ingenuity of writer-director David Mamet ("The
Spanish Prisoner," "State and Main") is boundless and the intricately woven plot
is polished and unpredictable. Basically, nothing is as it seems so you have to
watch carefully for the subtle twists and turns. While Gene Hackman, Danny
DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay, Sam Rockwell, even Patti LuPone as a customs
officer, deliver solid performances, Rebecca Pidgeon's not even remotely
convincing as the pivotal woman involved. The fact that she's Mamet's real-life
wife is the only explanation for her being cast. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1
to 10, "Heist" is an enigmatic 8. It's a spider's web of intrigue, betrayal and
deception.
Copyright © 2001 Susan Granger
| |
|
|
Buy movie posters!
|
