David Mamet turned into a very interesting (if not always good) film artist, but his Heist has one of the worst plots of any movie in 2001.  Amoral and almost a potboiler, it revolves around the machinations of thieves acted by Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito and Delroy Lindo.  It boasts some excellent dialogue, however:  “She could talk herself out of a sunburn.”  The first words out of Hackman’s mouth when he and Rebecca Pidgeon are ready to pull a job are “Nobody lives forever.”  “Frank Sinatra gave it a shot,” replies Pidgeon coolly.  Peculiar language for a caper movie–which is good.  Perhaps the film should be seen just for its dialogue.

Alas, it has flaws besides plot problems, though, such as a clumsily directed sequence in which Lindo gets tough with a couple of  cheatin’ fellow robbers.

Stick with Mamet’s The Winslow Boy and even State and Main.  You’ll do better.

Cover of Heist

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I decided to watch I Know Who Killed Me (2007) on DVD because a critic, Jim Ridley, at the Village Voice liked it and opined that moviegoers shouldn’t have overlooked it. 

He’s nearly right.  For over an hour this horror film by Scott Sivertson, starring Lindsay Lohan, is an intriguing bundle of nasty realism, and it does have the damaged Lohan’s magnetism.  It’s unfortunate, then, that this flick which Ridley says was “sold as torture porn” ends up as weak as contemporary torture porn.  The last one-third is rushed and ludicrous, with Sivertson’s flashy, gimmicky style always present.  It could have achieved a gory marriage of Hitchcock and David Lynch, but no.  I know what killed it.

I Know Who Killed Me (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

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