I never had the chance to catch The Good Thief while it was it playing in theaters, and after watching it on DVD I came away quite divided. This is one of those movies that really frustrates because you can tell it had the potential to be a truly top-notch film - and it certainly has some great moments - but didn't come together the way it should have. This is partly due to the script and partly due to Neil Jordan's inconsistent direction.


The film follows Nick Nolte as an American gambler and heroine addict living in Nice, who decides he's going to rob the famous Riviera casino in Monte Carlo. The story mostly deals with him and his team trying to plan the heist while avoiding the local police, who suspect he's up to something, but also involves a young Russian woman he takes under his wing. Why he does this isn't entirely clear, although I guess we're supposed to think he's a good guy beneath the hard facade. Nolte is quite good in the role when you can actually understand him, and the film and the characters are vague and mysterious and never really tie together the way you might expect, if at all.

Sadly, much of The Good Thief is...well...corny. The music selections are too dramatic and overdone, and many of the situations are incoherent - possibly the result of over-editing during post-production. It's a tough piece of work to grasp because the truth is it's really not very good, but has so many strong ideas at its core that you can still sit through it without being bored. Like I said, frustrating.

Posted August 26, 2003 | link