The Good Thief
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Movie Reviews of The Good Thief
Movie Review: entertaining but strained
Summary: 3 Stars
Remake of "Bob Le Flambeur", misses more than hits it's mark.The first problem is that it is inferior to the original in almost every way, although color, modern setting, and well known Nolte make for more accessibility to US crowd. Amusing to see a film in France with almost no French spoken,,,,even the French cops speak english to each other!
Nutsa is a real beauty, but the movie falls flat in it's rush towards a modern day fairy tale. Not one shred of realism, not even a whiff....
Movie Review: It is what it is
Summary: 3 Stars
Nick Nolte's mumbling and asthmatic whispering will challenge your tv's sound system. Still, this heist flick is a cut above some others. Interesting unknown cast, though the plot about a casino art theft is something you'll think you've seen before. The scenes between Nolte and the teen Russian prostitute are very good. It's worth watching because it's higher quality that it could have been.Movie Review: WHAT A WASTE
Summary: 3 Stars
This film was another deep disappointement. Everything what could have missed was missed there. In this film I saw a very good story, which was almost impossible to screw up. This story could make one of the greatest films if not for Nick Nolte and for the rest of the group. The film is very weak, primitive, I would say. I gave it three stars only out of respect for the past.Movie Review: Flashier but not better than its model
Summary: 2 Stars
The Good Thief is a new take on Jean-Pierre Melville's celebrated 1955 film Bob le Flambeur. Comparisons are said to be odious, and the critic's first commandment is to review the film at hand, not compare it with something else. I've broken a few other commandments in my time, and I'm afraid this one is next. There is simply no way I can look at a remake of a film I'm fond of and not measure it against the original, so I won't try.Bob le Flambeur has been described as a precursor of the French New Wave films of Truffaut, Godard, Resnais et al.: the dialogue and editing were naturalistic rather than stage-play-like, the cinematography was a major element in the film rather than just a recording device. In that sense, B. le F. was a precognition not only of the French New Wave but of the style of most "serious" films today.
Neil Jordan, the director and screenwriter, wants to keep our eyes glued to the screen. The cinematographer, Chris Menges, gives us gorgeous saturated colors. The streets of Nice and Monte Carlo glow in the Mediterranean sun. Neon lighting in nightclubs bathes their inhabitants in the hues of tropical fish. Visually, there's hardly a dull moment in The Good Thief, and the DVD transfer captures the vibrancy of the camera work to perfection.
B. le F. -- set in Paris, not the south of France -- had its own ocular poetry, though, that didn't try to punch you out. Its black-and-white cinematography featured exteriors of Place Pigalle in the wan light of dawn, a bleak analogue to the lives of the gamblers and small-time crooks who were the movie's subjects.
The Good Thief, like B. le F., is about a man who has something of a privileged background (both films are a little vague about this) who has wasted his life as a gambler. After taking several falls and doing prison time, Bob is now way past his prime with not much to show for it. Temptation knocks, in the form of a chance to lead a clever burglary at the casino in Monte Carlo.
Jordan has gone all out to make the story "contemporary." Besides the hot visuals and fluid camera movement, he has added "now" touches and sub-themes: drug addiction, North African rai music (lots of Cheb Mami on the soundtrack), a trans-sexual character, Christian symbolism (besides Bob, the title refers to the thief who was crucified next to Jesus), 12-step programs, art forgery, and of course lots of whiz-bang technology for the burglary scenes.
Not only is most of this flapdoodle uninteresting in itself; worse, it serves as a diversion from the character study that the original was and The Good Thief imagines itself to be.
That's a shame, because some of the casting is strong. Tcheky Karyo gives a compelling performance as the detective who is Bob's nemesis. The young actress Nutsa Kukhianidze, playing a too-old-for-her years waif who wanders into Bob's subterranean world and gets enmeshed in it, is much better than her counterpart in B. le F.
But the portrayal of the central character (Nick Nolte) is about as wrong as it could be. An odious comparison is unavoidable. In Melville's film, Roger Duchesne captured our feelings and our imagination because he was a tragic figure in the classical sense -- a hero with a fatal flaw. Duchesne as Bob retained touches of elegance and gentility, as well as an inward quality. Nolte has been required by the script (and probably by his own acting tendencies as well) to keep showing us what a sorry loser he is.
We watch him go through a drug withdrawal, let us in on what a scammer he is, show us such pure cynicism that we don't buy into the supposed repentence suggested by the movie's title. It's all spelled out for us; there's nothing left to draw us into the character. To take one example: in B. le F., when Bob goes on a winning streak in the casino, he hands the croupier a big tip. In The Good Thief, he does the same but announces to his companion that it's one of his Rules for High-stakes Gambling: "Always tip the croupier."
Here's one of my rules for moviemaking: "Don't just give us something to watch. Let us meet your characters half-way." I'm sure Jordan studied Melville's film carefully, but that's one element he seems to have missed.
Movie Review: not that good a movie if you are a ralph fiennes fan
Summary: 2 Stars
I wanted to treat myself to a well-deserved gift and stupidly purchased this DVD without knowing anything about it. Afterall, it did have a picture of Ralph Fiennes on it. Imagine my disappointment when he barely showed up in the film. This is a movie for Nick Nolte fans. And it is certainly not a very good movie at that. I have to admit that I didn't even finish it as my copy was faulty with stops and fast forwards. Ralph Fiennes fans hold onto your money -- one day he may decide to appear in a really good film again.