Movies

A heist movie that oozes style, particularly in the form of Nick Nolte, gangster, part-time heroin addict (he handcuffs himself to the bed to go cold turkey before a job) and good guy. He befriends a gorgeous young waif (Nino Kukhanidze) with only altruistic motives (when she could potentially become his Achilles Heel) and proceeds to mastermind a complex heist, playing a chummy cat and mouse with the chief of police. Far classier than your average thriller, and mercifully lacking (with the occasional plot-based exception) in explosions and fast car chases.

More than a heist film, with an interesting young cast and a terrific conclusion at the gambling tables, with Nick Nolte playing a heroin addicted compulsive gambler and all around nice guy who goes cold turkey in order to get in shape for the heist of a super swank Monte Carlo casino vault and priceless paintings. Jordan captures the mood of drugs and nightlife with the fantastic photography and very cool soundtrack, including Leonard Cohen and a great version of That's Life. The cast makes this film, especially Nutsa Kukhianidze as Anne and Said Taghmaoui as Paulo, whose interaction take the film in an even more interesting direction, while the addition of identical twins (the Polish brothers) was a stroke of genius.

THE GOOD THIEF (2003) *** Nick Nolte, Tcheky Karyo, Said Taghmaouri, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Mark Polish, Michael Polish, Ralph Fiennes (unbilled). Neil Jordan's ambitious remake of the French noir Jean-Pierre Melville's 1955 Bob le Flambeur shrewdly casts Nolte (in one of his best performances) as an American junkie/thief in semi-retirement who plans a final score in the glitzy Monte Carlo casino stashing some pricy art works and risk taking with a young prostitute (Kukhianidze). Stylish and skillfully filmed with an interesting skip-start staccato editing from sequence to sequence.