Heist
It's a setup we've seen many times before: A team of thieves (usually led by an old, seen-it-all pro and often including a hot-headed rookie) tries to pull off one last job (the highest stakes and highest risk the team has ever faced) for a crime boss/old friend (sometimes double-crossing) so that the head thief can sail off into the sunset (in this case, literally) with his beautiful wife/girlfriend and live happily ever after.
That's the formula that Heist more or less employs, but it's written and directed by acclaimed playwright David Mamet, an expert at "con" films and intricate plot twists. The question, then, is whether Mamet and his outstanding cast can breathe new life into this tried-and-true formula.
A riveting opening scene starts the movie in promising fashion. Team leader Joe Moore (Gene Hackman), flanked by Bobby Blane (Delroy Lindo) and Pinky Pincus (Mamet regular Ricky Jay), and with a little help from Joe's wife Fran (Mamet's real-life wife Rebecca Pidgeon), stages an intricately planned diamond robbery. Problem is, Joe gets caught on the security tape, meaning that he's "burnt" and needs to skip town immediately. All he's got to do is collect his money from the plan's mastermind Mickey Bergman (Danny DeVito) and go on his merry way.
Not so fast. Mickey has another job he wants Joe and his team to do, and he won't give Joe & Co. their share unless they go through with it. To keep an eye on him, Mickey also insists that Joe take his nephew Jimmy Silk (Sam Rockwell, nicely exuding white-trash stupidity) along for the ride. Joe, low on cash and needing to "get away" for a long time, is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
For a while, Heist is fresh, fun and invigorating. The brilliant Hackman is in peak form as the grizzled veteran Joe, barking some great one-liners and showcasing some excellent chemistry with Lindo, surely one of the most underrated actors in the business. DeVito is also in classic oily form, and Mamet gives him one of the film's most memorable lines: "Everybody loves money. That's why they call it money."
Mamet, directing with perhaps his largest budget, proves he can pull off some nail-biting suspense scenes. And the film's initial plot twists are intriguing, as you wonder whether the wily, seen-it-all Joe can pull it off, and which characters are really on his side, and which are plotting against him. An exciting resolution seems certain.
That's why it's disappointing to see Mamet go so "Hollywood" in the film's final 30 minutes. Let's start with the film's climactic gunfight. Variety said it should have been more "stylish," while Roger Ebert argued that the shooters' self-consciousness was exactly what he liked about it. They're both wrong. Mamet should have come up with a smarter way of resolving things than stooping to the tired "gunfight" device -- especially if he was going to use the dreaded "protagonist's friend who you thought was dead or injured pops up out of nowhere to save the hero" clichˇ.
Mamet also makes the mistake of layering one (or two or three) too many plot twists to the proceedings, to the point where things start to get ridiculous. Even Mamet's trademark dialogue deserts him, sounding particularly awkward and stilted toward the film's end.
Nonetheless, with the excellent performances by Hackman and Lindo, and some top-notch suspense sequences and dialogue in the film's opening 75 minutes, Heist gives you enough of a run for the money to make it worth your while.
Send any comments/ feedback to the author.
The alcoholic airline worker who factors briefly into the plot is hardly enough inspiration to indulge.
The "love" triangle of Hackman, Rockwell and Pidgeon isn't exactly the stuff true romance is made of.
Buy this classic Mamet film from Amazon.com
Buy this classic Mamet film from Amazon.com
Related Articles:
1) Glengarry Glen Ross
2) Under Suspicion
3) Heartbreakers
4) Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
