The Good Thief

THE GOOD THIEF

Rating: A-

"Remember the 80's?" "No."

The Good Thief is one of those "caper" films, a la Ocean's Eleven, The Score, and half a bazillion others, where enormous safes, red laser security beams, and tiny video cameras are as integral to the mise-en-scčne as belly dancers to an Arabian Knights flick. Taken on those terms, the film is a rather successful specimen of the genre. The pacing is lively, the plot is complicated enough to remain engrossing without choking itself with an overabundance of twists, and the characters are likeable (even if they are thieves.) And the prerequisite love story isn't allowed to muck up the proceedings.

Nick Nolte plays a down-on-his-luck drug and alcohol addict with a modicum of good-heartedness buried deep inside. (For your homework assignment, try to come up with the last film he starred in where he wasn't playing a down-on-his-luck drug and alcohol addict with a modicum of good-heartedness buried deep inside.) As he's slumming in obscurity somewhere in southern France, he encounters Nutsa Kukhianidze, a new face in the local bar who seems destined for a life on the street. So in steps St. Nick to her rescue. She's seventeen; He's in his late forties or early fifties. She keeps coming on to him, while he keeps nobly resisting. Fortunately, she turns eighteen before the movie's over, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Anyway, one day an associate informs Nolte about the fortune in paintings recently added to the walls of a Monaco casino. The thought of breaking the bank at Monte Carlo in a whole new way sends the wheels in his head whirring into overdrive. He promptly cooks up a scheme where there'll be a false heist of the casino safe as a diversion from the real heist of the paintings. Even the fact that police detective Tcheky Karyo dogs Nolte's every move with a determination not witnessed since Les Miserables gets worked into the plan. Nolte's so enthused, he even decides to quit his heroin habit cold turkey. Unfortunately, the one thing all his years have failed to teach him is that the more elaborate your plan, the greater the chance for something to go terribly wrong.

Director Neil Jordan turns in a credible day's work, particularly in later scenes inside the casino where Nolte and Kukhianidze gamble the night away while the heist unfolds around them. While similar segments are commonplace in other films, Jordan manages to keep his fresh and interesting. As things wrap up, a few loose ends regarding some of Nolte's unfortunate accomplices are conveniently neglected. And it was never clear to me why the thieves constructed an exact replica of the vault where the paintings were stored. Although we're shown the mockup several times, it never really has anything to do with their actual plan. But in spite of these minor drawbacks, the film still manages a satisfying conclusion.

Ralph Fiennes appears in a small role as a shady art dealer.