Heist

A master thief (Gene Hackman) embarks on one last score with his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) and henchmen (Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay), going after a shipment of millions in Swiss gold. Writer/director David Mamet updates the conventions of 1940s film noir (he even resurrects the old Warner Bros. logo and fanfare). The film’s chief asset is its first-rate cast (including Danny DeVito, Sam Rockwell and Patti LuPone). The story is like a bad mountain road: full of twists, turns and huge potholes, with Mamet driving through it about 10 miles an hour, his direction too slack and lackadaisical to build much tension or suspense. Also, as usual in Mamet’s plays as well as his films, everybody talks too damn much, and Mamet-the-director can’t bear to lose even one of Mamet-the-writer’s golden words.