The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series)
by Stephen Frears
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening, Jan Munroe, John Cusack, Robert WeemsDirector: Stephen Frears
Brand: BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO
Producer: Barbara De Fina
Producer: Jim Painter
Producer: Martin Scorsese
Producer: Peggy Rajski
Producer: Robert A. Harris
Writer: Donald E. Westlake
Writer: Jim Thompson
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series)
Movie Review: ANNETTE BENING SEDUCES
Summary: 3 Stars
When Annette Bening leans naked in a doorway in a seductive and bold posture, that lingering, unexpected image defines the cool criminality of this neo-noir. Stephen Frears's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel twists our discomfort with the primal relationship of mother, son and girlfriend. The latter two played by John Cusack and Angelica Huston.
The central conceit here is suggests that a life devoted to running the con corrupts the most basic of relationships and values. Well, duh. The world of the story seen through the eyes of the con-artists and is filled with either "grifters" or "squares."
This same world-view seems to have permeated the politics of capitalism.
In light of today's national economic woes, how ironic that we once called chiselers "confidence" artists.
Summary of The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series)
Academy Award(R)-winning actress Anjelica Huston (Best Supporting Actress, PRIZZI'S HONOR, 1985), John Cusack (SERENDIPITY), and Annette Bening (AMERICAN BEAUTY) star in this acclaimed hit where seduction and betrayal could lead to murder! When small-time cheat Roy Dillon (Cusack) winds up in the hospital following an unsuccessful scam, it sets up a confrontation between his estranged mother Lilly (Huston) and sexy girlfriend Myra (Bening). Both Lilly and Myra are ruthless confidence artists playing the con game in a league far above Roy ... and always looking for their next victim! The question soon becomes who's conning who as Roy finds himself caught in a complicated web of passion and mistrust!Annette Bening twists like a mink on a leash through Stephen Frears's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel. This may be the perfect trope for the moral hysteria that coils around a mother, her son, and his girlfriend in this slender but highly pleasurable neo-noir. Small in effect and local in scope, the film is about small-fry, attractive, bloodless con artists who view the world as neatly split between ropers and suckers, grifters and squares. "Grifter's got an irresistible urge to beat a guy that's wise," an old-timer tells Roy (John Cusack). And yet the three characters here--played by Angelica Huston, Cusack, and Bening--only beat the innocent: Lilly (Huston) gigs at the track for a mobster named Bobo, putting wads of cash on long-shot horses to even out the odds. Roy, her son, swindles citizens by dimes and degrees, flashing twenties at bars then paying for his beer with tens. His girlfriend, Myra (Bening), is hustling herself, her salad days as a long-con roper behind her. Theirs is a world of gut punches and smart lines, and the adrenaline these cheats and chiselers live by is palpable onscreen. But a larger canvas? Maybe it's there as a parallel universe. "What do you sell again?" Myra asks Roy, the matchbook salesman. "Self-confidence," he says, a wry allusion to the confidence game all three of them are playing. The movie boasts dazzling turns by Bening, Cusack, and especially Huston, whose m?re fatale breaks new ground for noir. --Lyall Bush
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