THE GOOD THIEF
Directed by: Neil Jordan.
Produced by: Seaton McLean, John Wells & Stephen Woolley.
Written by: Jordan.
Director of Photography: Chris Menges.
Edited by: Tony Lawson.
Music by: Elliot Goldenthal.
Released by: Fox Searchlight.
Country of Origin: UK/France/Canada/Ireland. 108 min. Rated: R.
With: Nick Nolte & Nutsa Kukhianidze.
DVD Features: Commentary by Jordan. Delected Scenes. Making of Featurette: "To Film a'Thief'". English & Spanish Audio. English & Spanish Subtitles. Full Screen and Wide Screen.

This very good remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1955 French noir Bob le Flambeur is a natural choice for director Neil Jordan, whose own romantic crime drama, Mona Lisa, shares a kindred spirit with Melville's classic. While faithful to the tone and characters of the original, The Good Thief has been smartly updated, transplanted from Paris to the French Riviera, with a style all of its own and moving at a faster, contemporary pace. Down on his luck, gambler and junkie Bob (Nolte, in a role that fits him like a glove) decides to pull off one last heist as an act of redemption. Knowing he is being watched by the police, he wants to use his presence at a Monte Carlo casino as a decoy. His real target is the priceless art collection stored in a nearby villa. Weaving in high-tech gadgetry and the ’80s art boom into the plot, The Good Thief treads the path of many a heist film: first there's a plan, the recruits are assembled, and then a monkey wrench is thrown into the plans, usually involving a girl. In fact, the film even borrows an important detail from the elaborate scheme of the recent Ocean’s Eleven. Jordan wisely retains much of the witty and caustic banter from Bob le Flambeur, and Nolte brings an effortless sense of weariness and cockiness to his role, though strangely for this international cast, his baritone-mumbled English can be the hardest to understand. Cinematographer Chris Menges contrasts the harsh sunshine of the Riviera with smoky nocturnal scenes of deep blues. And the mood is further set by the soundtrack, which includes Leonard Cohen songs (appropriately, "Boogie Street") that reflect Bob's fatigue, as well as an Elliot Goldenthal score influenced by Eric Satie and the music of North Africa. Jordan proves Bob right. It's not about winning. It's about attitude.

DVD Features: The articulate and detailed commentary by Jordan includes psychological insights, as well as the explanation of the disorienting freeze frames. (They are used as punctuation from one scene to the next.) The six-minute featurette is more like a trailer, filled with film clips, and many of the seven short deleted scenes further detail, and perhaps overstate, the role of drugs in the film. KT
August 25, 2003