"The Good Thief" (2002) - Movie Review

A down by luck heroin addicted thief plans one last job. Welcome to the heist movie. Bob (Nick Nolte) is the gamer and we are in for a mixed treat of too often smug and a rare satisfying conviction in end to wonder upon. Not due to how the heist particularly gets orchestrated but as a film how our opinion on film concludes collectively. It winks more often than necessary and that is not to cheat but to say that it does not promise anything than what it is showing. It is a strange film to gauge upon.

Artsy is a far fetched word for “The Good Thief” and character study is even more distant for its lead character. Bob has a passion for mathematics than on thieving. He introduces himself by educating the property of prime number to the people he meets and rescues. One such is a young girl too mature for her age or at least does a good job in faking it is Anne (Nutsa Kukhianidze). And another is his friend and foe Roger (Tchéky Karyo), a detective. Bob cleans up and openly advertises his secrecy of getting back on his cornerstone of excellence.

We have seen the plan, we have seen it to do by charming personalities, funny imposters and we see Bob as charming imposter. He reveals the operation to his fellow workers, Paulo (Saïd Taghmaoui) who idolizes him and his second in command Raoul (Gérard Darmon). Fake one heist and use it as a distraction for the main heist. So now that’s a fake for us as any moviegoer would conclude. This notion is the key point for the final blow.

Now for the problem. For starters, it will be the placid, blatantly attitude boasting and sometimes predictable conversation between every character almost. They recite thinking it as careless and to maintain a cool composure but it on the opposite pinches us on its flat delivery. Does it also perform a part in the fake game played by Bob? It is a bad one. This disconnects from us to not show or to make an effort to understand Bob, Anne or Paulo. Then the weird characters are put in place. Director Neil Jordon makes the film like the uninteresting dialogues I mentioned. Is it becoming a preposterous attempt on aesthetic value towards a heist film? It does not succeed.

But something happens as it is about to wrap up. The finale of the heist to be executed upon and that’s where the unimpressive Bob till that time makes an impressive cool comeback. I am still figuring out on some of the scoops in it but the editing, style and the performance of Nolte makes up for the entire film. The suspense does not blow our mind but the aesthetics attempted badly earlier comes to pitch perfect now. We know where it is going but not confident enough to believe it. Display of emotions in a gambling table is not good is what Bob says and may be we are concealing our celebration of the film on its good final act. We wait and we are in doubt. Jordon plays us good on this.

The soundtracks are funky and the tone of the film is murky. “The Good Thief” has a calm boasting personality about it. We are attracted and distracted of Bob. There are too many clichés too. It has an old man with a gentle heart, an attractive untrusting young girl and a youthful ambitious man performing a sidekick, and to top it off a con/heist film. It reminds of how many thieving films we have seen and when a movie lets you think like that, we get second thoughts about it. Bob is hazy but not lethargic and Nolte performs lethargically. We know the difference because he is that good in his material under the realms of the final act. The film for most of the part as the robbery pulls plays as a fake. It is a good concept but the fake should be intuitive and interesting in its script. Some may like the fake and love the ending. I disliked the fake and admired the original striking blow of perfection for its final ten minutes.