Film Review: Heist

The film benefits from David Mamet's knack for crisp and witty dialogue. Moreover, the action scenes are fast moving, well-crafted, and entertaining. One of the best things about Heist is its ability to keep one step ahead of the audience. Many current crime films are rather predictable and the audience is able to determine every character's move with alacrity. With the exception of a few predictable plot developments, Heist keeps the audience guessing. In particular, Mamet creates mystery surrounding how the gold heist will be executed and it is not clear where the planning is leading until the heist occurs. Certain key characters' intentions as to what to do with the gold are also deftly masked by Mamet. While the sense of mystery and surprise is an important factor in the film's success, it occasionally creates a little too much confusion and makes the film hard to follow. At the end of the film, I felt that some of the character's actions and a few of the plot developments could have been explained better through the script and direction.

One of the major draws of Heist is its performances. Danny Devito skillfully plays yet another ruthless jerk and Sam Rockwell, seemingly typecast, is excellent as the shady Jimmy Silk. The trio of thieves really moves this film. Ricky Jay is funny and sympathetic as Pinky. Delroy Lindo is always a commanding presence and the audience is really given a sense of the bond between his character, Bobby Blane, and Joe. Gene Hackman is fabulous as Joe Moore. Hackman is always intriguing to watch, and here he particularly shines. He makes Joe's cynicism charming and Joe's intelligence and composure evident. The only performance that was somewhat disappointing was Rebecca Pidgeon's performance as Fran. The official Heist website explains that Pidgeon modeled her character after Jean Seberg in Breathless. She wanted the character to be the cool femme fatale traditionally found in a film noir. Pidgeon succeeded at this goal. Fran comes across as very cool, smooth-talking, and unemotional, and this is good to an extent because it masks Fran's true intentions and allows for one of the film's many plot twists. However, the character is portrayed as a little too cool and Pidgeon's performance at times seems rather flat. The lack of chemistry between Fran and Joe and later Fran and Jimmy is particularly disappointing. Fran's cool with a little more fire may have

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