Brock Landers
12-13-2000, 03:18 PM
"The Grifters" A Brock Landers Overview of A Stephen Frears Film (7/10)
After watching this film last evening (for the fourth time), I came to the conclusion that the filmmakers involved wanted us to believe that the "grift" is thicker than blood. This may or may not be what Stephen Frears' film version of Jim Thompson's similarly titled novel is trying to say, but what can be said…for sure…is that "The Grifters" is a strong story full of complex characters, hard boiled dialogue and colorful anecdotes…it's too bad the film doesn't pull it off in such a gratifying manner…
Grifters are small-time con men, guys who are afraid to go after the big kills (think "The Sting" or "Traveller"). They are fearful of the implied violence involved in big-money schemes…instead choosing to claw and scratch for the small change.
The film is set in a sexually dysfunctional world where nothing makes sense…two women clash for the dispositions of a young man, although neither of them seems to really love him. For his part, he distrusts both, in particular the one who happens to be his mom.
John Cusack plays Roy (the same John Cusack in Stephen Frear's "High Fidelity"…he of the small mouth and babyface). Roy is always looking for a way to trade a nickel for a dime, working on the theory that dimes more quickly add up to dollars. His grifts are simple but effective…"I'll give you a dime for every quarter you can balance on end", he tells a chump, thereby trading 10 dimes for $2.50 in loose change…Myra (Annette Bening…with one of the funniest sex scenes ever…think "American Beauty"-style), is also a grifter, and sees Roy as a way to work her way up to the big time where she was once a "sweeper"…using her beauty as a sucker-magnet for a historically renowned con man. Myra is opposed by Lily (Anjelica Huston), who's not only Roy's mom but just fourteen years older than him (you do the math)…Lily's a grifter too…she's some kind of traveling odds-tweaker for a Baltimore bookie named Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle Jr.). [Question: How in the hell does Lily or Bobo make any dough putting money on longshots in order to lower the odds?]
Why John Cusack? He really seems to lack the appeal or intensity that would make him appealing to either woman, including his mother. Cusack's peculiar murkiness does a lot to suck the core from the movie. Bening and Huston, however, are both aces…Bening's character has a kind of cheerful self-awareness and self-seeking vigor that's very charming, and Huston seems stronger than tough actin' Tenactin…"The Grifters" is strongest when it is dealing with the theme of sexual rivalry in this perverted realm, that is to say the triangle between son, mother and lady friend aka trois…The problems with the plot of the film come from its frequent counterfeit starts and numerous dead ends (like when it wastes time on Hingle's character Bobo, who appears vividly then vanishes for no reason whatsoever). It's almost like the script was written by someone who fell asleep after writing a scene…then woke up the next day, having forgot the premise of the story, and wrote the next scene about something completely unrelated…perhaps he suffers from blackouts.
Overall it feels like "The Grifters" has conned us all…I mean, I really like this film, but I don't know why. The accidental killing at the end seems cheap and the bullet wound to the face that makes the body "unidentifiable" is ridiculous with all of the forensics available to the police… there must be something good about this film…if I could just put my finger on it…hmmmm…
After watching this film last evening (for the fourth time), I came to the conclusion that the filmmakers involved wanted us to believe that the "grift" is thicker than blood. This may or may not be what Stephen Frears' film version of Jim Thompson's similarly titled novel is trying to say, but what can be said…for sure…is that "The Grifters" is a strong story full of complex characters, hard boiled dialogue and colorful anecdotes…it's too bad the film doesn't pull it off in such a gratifying manner…
Grifters are small-time con men, guys who are afraid to go after the big kills (think "The Sting" or "Traveller"). They are fearful of the implied violence involved in big-money schemes…instead choosing to claw and scratch for the small change.
The film is set in a sexually dysfunctional world where nothing makes sense…two women clash for the dispositions of a young man, although neither of them seems to really love him. For his part, he distrusts both, in particular the one who happens to be his mom.
John Cusack plays Roy (the same John Cusack in Stephen Frear's "High Fidelity"…he of the small mouth and babyface). Roy is always looking for a way to trade a nickel for a dime, working on the theory that dimes more quickly add up to dollars. His grifts are simple but effective…"I'll give you a dime for every quarter you can balance on end", he tells a chump, thereby trading 10 dimes for $2.50 in loose change…Myra (Annette Bening…with one of the funniest sex scenes ever…think "American Beauty"-style), is also a grifter, and sees Roy as a way to work her way up to the big time where she was once a "sweeper"…using her beauty as a sucker-magnet for a historically renowned con man. Myra is opposed by Lily (Anjelica Huston), who's not only Roy's mom but just fourteen years older than him (you do the math)…Lily's a grifter too…she's some kind of traveling odds-tweaker for a Baltimore bookie named Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle Jr.). [Question: How in the hell does Lily or Bobo make any dough putting money on longshots in order to lower the odds?]
Why John Cusack? He really seems to lack the appeal or intensity that would make him appealing to either woman, including his mother. Cusack's peculiar murkiness does a lot to suck the core from the movie. Bening and Huston, however, are both aces…Bening's character has a kind of cheerful self-awareness and self-seeking vigor that's very charming, and Huston seems stronger than tough actin' Tenactin…"The Grifters" is strongest when it is dealing with the theme of sexual rivalry in this perverted realm, that is to say the triangle between son, mother and lady friend aka trois…The problems with the plot of the film come from its frequent counterfeit starts and numerous dead ends (like when it wastes time on Hingle's character Bobo, who appears vividly then vanishes for no reason whatsoever). It's almost like the script was written by someone who fell asleep after writing a scene…then woke up the next day, having forgot the premise of the story, and wrote the next scene about something completely unrelated…perhaps he suffers from blackouts.
Overall it feels like "The Grifters" has conned us all…I mean, I really like this film, but I don't know why. The accidental killing at the end seems cheap and the bullet wound to the face that makes the body "unidentifiable" is ridiculous with all of the forensics available to the police… there must be something good about this film…if I could just put my finger on it…hmmmm…