BEFORE: Back on track after last night's thematic mis-step - where were the crooks in "Crooklyn"? This will finish off the latest "heist" chain, I've got more cop movies but I'll have to double back again later. Linking from last night, Delroy Lindo had a small role in "The Devil's Advocate" with Al Pacino, who of course links to James Caan (last seen in "New York, I Love You") through "The Godfather".
THE PLOT: Becoming closer to his dream of leading a normal life, a professional safecracker agrees to do a job for the mafia.
AFTER: This is an interesting little character-study film. The focus is not so much on the technical aspects of safe-cracking (though there is a bit about disabling alarm systems), it's more about the life of a thief and what motivates him to continue working in such a risky business.
James Caan plays the thief, who focuses on high-end diamond jobs. He's got a day job as a used-car salesman, but that seems to be just a cover. What car salesman wears such expensive suits, and drives a Cadillac instead of a car off the lot?
His fence dies after a job, but before he can collect his take, and that means he's got to work his way through the lower levels of organize crime in order to get the money he's due. This puts him in touch with higher levels that want to hire him, whereas up until that point he'd worked freelance. Looking for one last score to cash in and get out of the business, he reluctantly agrees.
Of course, a thief looking for his last score is akin to a soldier in a war movie flashing a picture of his girl at home, isn't it? The crew in "The Town" was looking for just one more score, and look how THAT turned out.
This film also plays the same little tricks that "The Town" did - if your central character is a no-good thief, how do you make him more sympathetic? You can give him a romantic interest, to point out that he's got the same hopes and dreams as regular folk. And, you can also make the people that he works for much more evil than him, and this puts him in a vulnerable position, where he's not in control of his situation.
We are thus meant to feel somewhat sorry for a thief who's being manipulated or financially screwed, as an anti-hero. Caan ends up being something of a bad-ass as he tries to take down the people who've got his balls in a vise. And yes, he's willing to sacrifice his shot at romance, and fatherhood in this case, to get his freedom back.
Also starring Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky (last seen in "Far and Away"), James Belushi (last seen in "Red Heat"), with cameos from Willie Nelson (last seen in "The Dukes of Hazzard") Dennis Farina (last seen in "Stealing Harvard") and William Petersen (last seen in "Manhunter").
RATING: 4 out of 10 fire extinguishers
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