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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
The Good Thief
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  out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
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Inspired by Jean Pierre Melville's "Bob Le Flambeur," this clever
crime caper is chock full of duplicity and deception - which is not surprising
since writer/director Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") is at the helm. As the
quirky story begins, Bob Montagnet (Nick Nolte), a weary, dissolute,
drug-addicted gambler, has lost his last francs at the Nice racetrack when one
of his seedy cohorts probes him about the possibility of robbing the Casino
Riviera in Monte Carlo on the eve of the Grand Prix. "I've retired," he growls.
"I'm no longer a thief," he repeats to a suspicious detective friend (Tcheky
Karyo), who pays him a visit soon after. But the temptation for one last score
grows as he discovers that it's not the casino's cash-crammed safe that's the
lure: it's the cache of priceless Impressionist paintings that hang on its
walls. Actually, the art on public display is fake but the real Cezannes,
Picassos, Van Goghs and Modiglianis are stashed in a vault in a nearby building
- and he's been tipped off by the man (Emir Kusturica) who installed the
security system. Mix in a tart subplot with a sexy, young ‚migr‚ waitress (Nutsa
Kukhianidze), and the clincher comes via tricky twins who hold the Casino's
access codes.
Once the gritty heist starts, Jordan keeps the tension taut, aided
by the cinematography of Chris Menges that has aspects of an atmospheric tone
poem - and the title's Biblical from the New Testament. Just months after his
real-life arrest as a disheveled drunk, ravaged Nick Nolte delivers one of his
most memorable performances, convincingly taking self-destruction to a new
level. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Good Thief" is an ingenious
if garbled 7, and credit Neil Jordan for concocting a more satisfying conclusion
than the 1955 film noir.
Copyright © 2003 Susan Granger
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