Movie Review The Grifters

7/10

There's lots to talk about regarding this movie, but most of it is a spoiler so I'll keep it quick. There will be some spoilage so read on at your peril!

There's been a lot of hoo hah about this marmite movie in internet circles, like QoS it seems to have divided opinion over the years quite significantly.

I'll summarise opinion quickly so let's look at the "good" first;

• It features one of the strongest line ups possible at the time in John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening. All the acting is powerful and strong with even relative bit parts like that of 90s utility player J.T. Walsh are worked on with aplomb.
  
• The direction, editing and pacing with a couple of exceptions are excellent
• The script is sharp and well written, with many passages coming straight out of the book and showing real wit and invention in the situations the characters find themselves in.
• It doesn't sugar coat anything, from the characters themselves, their motives and the consequences of their actions (Huston's confrontation wiht her empoyer is a particular highlight in this regard)

So what do people not like about it?

• Well, as a movie about con artists you spend the whole movie expecting a twist, or some exciting machination to be revealed in which the characters are conning each other. It just doesn't happen.
• Without that there is very little in the way of story - while things happen and developments take place which challenge and threaten our protagonists there is little in the way of traditional plotting or pacing.
• The ending is a source of considerable ridicule elsewhere - it requires a certain acceptace of the conceit and if you're not playing ball it seems dumb and contrived.

As for myself, I was expecting more from this film, and while it is still very strong and features what may well be career best performances from Bening and Huston I didn't come off the end feeling much of anything for any of the characters.

I was, as many people have been, very impressed by the acting and being a John Cusack fan I am very happy that this was a launchpad from his teen romcom past into the actor we have today. I don't think Annette Bening, even in her recentish hits like American Beauty bested this twisted and amoral performance. As for Huston, she is simply a powerhouse. Utterly unmatchable.

BUT...

Sure it's all very downbeat and gritty, the sequence of events feels realistic and believable and the acting is definitely excellent. This doesn't avoid the major pitfall it is victim to - it's a little empty. When you have fairly unsympathetic characters in unsympathetic situations being fairly nasty to each other I would hope for perhaps a little black comedy to lighten the load, or some ray of light... or something! As it is the film's bleakish message is just a little one dimensional perhaps, a little too focussed... a little too judgemental.

Also, maybe it's the experience I have with movies, but I felt no suspense at all after the supposedly crucial "motel sequence" as to the victim's identity purely because of the way the editing and cuts were done. I knew exactly who wasn't coming out alive simply because of the point at which we move on from that. I'd have been more impressed if Stephen Frears had made it slightly more ambiguous.

Sigh... I just can't really get up much enthusiasm for it. Overall I was disappointed, it's good but not great as I was expecting.

I have given it 7/10 though, because it's quite a ride while its on, despite not realy giving me anything to take away.

In the world of controversial downbeat thrillers though... I er... (can;t believe I'm going to say this)...

I preferred The Long Goodbye. Ok? I know that's not the fashionable view but there you go.

Please be gentle....

A