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Reviews:
Mametisms:
Heist
by Christian De Matteo
Solid
I like David Mamet’s writing a lot.
Glen
Gary Glenross was excellent, The
Spanish Prisoner was awesome.
His writing is always cool, fun and freaking
confusing in that way that you can’t help but love
every inch of frustration.
His style of dialogue is so dynamic and
distinct that you always know when you’ve entered
a Mamet world, even when you tune in mid-film.
Heist,
unfortunately, finds Mamet doing his damnedest to
find that dynamic and distinct sound, painfully
pounding out the chords, trying desperately to sound
like himself. And
the result is a bit of a caricature.
If you like Mamet, you will enjoy it.
The film is complicated as all hell, with
more switches than the mind of your average female,
and some very cool lines (i.e. “My motherf**ker’s so cool, when he goes to sleep, sheep count him”)
and a very un-fun and evil shootout.
As always, Mamet pulls no punches, glamorizes
nothing, and shines the light on crime’s
grime-covered underbelly for so long you begin to be
sure you just saw a maggot twitch.
It’s fun to try and figure out and the
acting by Hackman, De Vito, and Lindo is very good
on all sides.
It is just not top notch Mamet, and to make matters more difficult,
while you may start out rooting for someone, by the
midway point you barely can.
No one has any real redeeming qualities
(intentionally done for a point by Mamet, I’m
sure) and this makes it harder to get into while you
realize that nothing but the gold matters to these
guys, and honestly, it’s barely even about that
anymore. The
movie is sad and repulsive in all the way you know
Mamet intends, but this does make a tad bit
difficult to watch.
Would I buy it? Probably
not, but I would watch it again if someone wanted to
see it and I would probably enjoy it because it’s
fun. But
if you are looking for a class act, rent (or buy)
Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner and see how the man has attained the legend
that is Mamet.
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