The Good Thief
review by
Cynthia Fuchs, 11 April 2003
Making copies
The South of France has rarely looked so grim and inviting as it
does in Neil Jordan's new film, The Good Thief. As such, it
reflects the sorry state of Bob Montagnet (Nick Nolte), an American
expatriate, heroin addict, and sometime gambler who, as the film
opens, is feeling especially sad and wasted. But, just as he appears
to have given himself over to illusion and destitution, he's jolted
by the appearance of the stunning, seventeen-year-old Anne (Nutsa
Kukhianidze).
A newcomer to
the Riviera, she's making her way on the street as a prostitute,
canny enough to know this isn't what she wants to do, but broke and
dazzled enough to think it's what she needs to do. She spots Bob
shooting up in the bathroom and judges, "You're too old to do that."
He peers up through his bloodshot eyes, sees her black eye, and
decides not only that she's "too young" to be doing what she's
doing, but also that he will save her, thus giving himself a mission
and a route to some sort of movieish redemption.
In order to
manage her rescue, Bob needs to clean himself up (this granting a
slightly less than conventional detox scene, where he's tied his bed
and providing a hallucinatory perspective on his room). He most
admires Picasso, he says, because that cat was "the best thief who
ever lived." Bob, by contrast, is a "good thief," in more ways than
one. When Anne offers him sex, thinking that his effort on her
behalf means he wants something specific in return, Bob, to his
credit (and the film's) says no thank you. His interests are more
complicated and more astute; and The Good Thief is less
concerned with standard caper movie dynamics (where the primary guy
gets with the girl), and more with a fanciful mosaic of illusion,
loyalty, and thievery.
Based on
Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob Le Flambeur (1955), Jordan's film
doubles all stakes of the original, and more elaborately, of the
remaking process (this includes the satisfyingly confusing
appearance of two guards, played by U.S. filmmakers Mark and Michael
Polish). As is usual in such reluctant hero setups (for example,
Casablanca or, more recently, The Transporter), Bob's
loyalest supporter is a local cop, Roger (Tchéky Karyo), who
observes not only Bob's repeated bad choices, but also his
occasional moral merits. Though they respect one another, they also
realize (and more or less accept) that they'll never fully
understand one another. The puzzling is enough.
Mostly
eluding Roger's watchful eye, Bob puts together a crack team --
including Raoul (Gérard Darmon), resourceful scammer Paulo (Saïd
Taghmaoui), and security systems expert Vladimir (Bosnian director
Emir Kusturica) -- in order to rob a casino, but not in any obvious
way; the intricacies of the plot, and the diverse crew might recall
the smug antics of, say, Ocean's Eleven, but Jordan's film is
less enamored of itself and more willing to take risks, with its
characters' faltering as well as their wholly entertaining cunning.
Bob takes up
an elaborate scheme, which involves pretending to steal fake
paintings while really stealing real ones, all the while leaving
much of the scheme to luck, as a gambler must, of course. This
capacity for giving over control is what most endears Bob, to all
those who watch him -- Roger, Anne, his compatriots and his enemies,
and of course, the rest of us. The watching is made exceedingly
pleasurable by Chris Menges' brilliant cinematography,
simultaneously fresh, gritty, and resplendent, hardly an easy
combination.
Most
intriguing is the subtle relationship between Bob and Anne. For all
its many deceptions and illusions, The Good Thief allows this
to develop as if in a real world, where genuine affection and
appreciation grant generosity rather than competition or arrogance.
Bob sees in Anne a younger version of himself -- ambitious, vital,
thrilled by surfaces. This "vision" indicates Bob's self-knowledge,
his consciousness of own limits and considerable gifts. He can see
that, as seductive and glorious as the surfaces (art, casinos,
pretty little street scenes) may be, his salvation lies in himself,
in another form. And the film's smartest conceit, its most exciting
insight, lies exactly here -- that Bob and Anne can infatuate and
delight one another as self-aware self-reflections.
Click here to read the interview.
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Written and
Directed
by:
Neil Jordan
Starring:
Nick Nolte
Nutsa Kukhianidze
Tchéky Karyo
Saïd Taghmaoui
Emir Kusturica
Mark and Michael Polish
Ralph Fiennes
Gérard Darmon
Rated:
R - Restricted.
Under 17 requires
parent or adult
guardian.
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