Today’s quick review: Heist. After his face is caught on camera during a heist, Joe (Gene Hackman) decides to retire from crime. But his partner Mickey (Danny DeVito) pressures Joe into pulling one last job: stealing a shipment of Swiss gold. To make sure everything goes smoothly, Mickey sends his rash nephew Jimmy (Sam Rockwell) to tag along. However, mistrust and misfortune threaten to tear the job apart.
Heist is a crime drama from writer and director David Mamet. Heist follows Joe and his partners as they attempt to thread the needle, pulling off their final job for Mickey while securing a healthy retirement package for Joe. The film features schemes within schemes as Joe puts his planning prowess to work, and the mechanics of the main heist are constructed well. However, flawed writing and mediocre characters keep Heist from being entirely satisfying.
Heist suffers from a dearth of likable characters. Joe earns some points for his clever planning, but he fails to charm as a person. His team are fine supporting characters but are not given much depth. For their part, Danny DeVito and Sam Rockwell play an unappealing pair of criminals, belying their acting talent. Between the unsympathetic characters and the frequent plot twists, Heist is a movie that is difficult to invest in and offers little emotional payoff.
Heist’s writing is another mark against it. The dialogue is abstractly clever but doesn’t hang together well on the screen. The lines have a realistic imperfection to them, but they are indirect and hard to follow. The plot indulges in too many false starts and fake outs, and while each individual twist is interesting, they are layered on too thickly to have much impact. As such, the story as a whole is less than the sum of its parts.
Still, for all its faults, Heist is a serviceable crime drama with a reputable cast and an interesting heist at its core. Those who like realistic dialogue and seedy characters will enjoy the film, while those who don’t will still get something from its twists and turns. Skip Heist if you’re looking for an emotionally rewarding or tightly plotted crime movie.
6.5 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it the same for a decent plot let down by lackluster dialogue and mediocre characters.