The Grifters

I picked out a DVD for me and my girlfriend to watch on her 21st birthday that i thought we would both like. We both love John Cusack and all of his works, but i must be frank in saying that The Grifters sucked. i was expecting an awesome thriller due the casting of the coolest cat of an actor, Mr. John Cusack, along with Anjelica Huston, who always puts on a stunning performance, but no...i was really let down, and more than once. First off, the movie is way too long and drags on forever. 2nd, the dialog and character attitude is so vague that the story is hard to believe...and finally, JOHN CUSACK DIES...?!?!?! What the hell?!? He is a movie hero, a true "good-guy" if you will, John Cusack does not die in his movies, therefore The Grifters sucked. I will still with Taxi Driver on the Scorcese side, and High Fidelity on Frears' side.

Despite all the talent involved -- Huston, Cusack, Bening, Frears and Scorcese -- I was neither engaged nor satisfied with "The Grifters." My wife and I have regularly enjoyed movies about elaborate con jobs. But there's nothing terribly clever about the ways that Huston, Cusak and Bening ply their cheating. Their characters are disagreeable individuals and what happens to them is off-putting and ultimately very bloody. Bening and, especially, Huston turn in pretty good performances but I've never much liked Cusack, and there's nothing in this film to improve his standing as far as I'm concerned. The three of us watching the film on streaming video uttered a collective "yccch" when it ended.

this movie has a dark film noir atmosphere that is somewhat intriguing but there is no plot whatsoever.The 3 main characters are one-dimensional and totally unlikable with various degrees of nastiness.One simply doesn't care what happens to them.One expects for a plot to develop at some point,like a scheme or something but it never does.We just get more of the same nasty attitude until some completely needless and superficial ending.Huston and Benning do the best they can with the material.There are movies about con artists that don't bother very much with character development but the good ones have some plot going and especially concentrate on smart con tactics,this movie does neither.The characters are too dumb to impress anyone and too nasty for anyone to care.Boring and wildly overrated.

This is one mean movie. It seduces, wraps your arms around you, and they guts you and leaves you stunned. Directed with striking precision and focus by Stephen Frears ("Philomena", "The Queen"), and written by Donald E. Westlake, one of the literary princes of crime fiction, and based off pulp author Jim Thompson's pulpy novel, in a manner so intricate with detail, so hardboiled that it cracks under the weight of each step it takes, one twist of the knife after another. It's all too good to be true for this neo-noir, even when Martin Scorsese's producing it. Then comes the actors – and my word, are they fantastic in their roles – John Cusack is sly yet undeterred in a role that is a slightly more edgier variation on Humphrey Bogart, with a cross of Lee Marvin, to boot; Annette Bening is simply drop-dead sexy as the woman who thinks she knows it all, yet is a timebomb waiting to explode. The real star of the show is Angelica Huston in a well-deserved Oscar nominated performance, perfectly balancing the ruthless, desperate act with a honest, focused, motherly concern that doesn't feel cliché at all. Who knew modern day, sunny Los Angeles and Phoenix can be the backdrop of so seedy a neo-noir, perhaps the best since Chinatown? Frears, Huston, Cusack, Bening, Westlake, cinematographer Oliver Stapleton and composer Elmer Bernstein deserve all the praise they can get for creating something so seedy yet starkly beautiful in retrospect.

Man, talk about a slow-burn. Going into The Grifters I was expecting a slick and quick-paced con thriller, but what I got was something much darker and much more absorbing. Director Stephen Frears, working off a script by Donald Westlake (adapted from the Jim Thompson novel) lets these characters get established before they start to bring us into the tangled web they are all weaving. Roy Dillon (John Cusack) is a con man pulling small jobs every day to slowly build up his savings, while his girlfriend Myra Langtry (Annette Bening) is doing anything she can to get by and his mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston) is working on a long play of her own. The tagline of "Who's conning who?" always makes me roll my eyes, but it's actually an accurate portrayal here, as these three play each other back and forth, while the film itself is pulling the veil over the audience. The Grifters is a brooding noir that throws back a lot to the '40s and it's Hitchcock roots, including some direct homages that feel appropriate for the story rather than cheap rip-offs. The film delves into some potentially melodramatic moments at times, but Frears is able to keep things in tune with it's seething roots as opposed to letting things get too theatrical. All three actors are working at top form here; Cusack was just starting to break out and this role should really be considered more among the best of his career, Huston steals the show in every scene and Bening (someone I've always despised) is seductive and very compelling. I thought that Bening was phoning it in a bit at first, but as more is revealed about the character you realize that she's conning herself as much as she is everyone else. Frears crafts this one with a great tone that the actors play into very well, with some powerful sexual undertones and a dynamite finale.

The Grifters sees John Cusack play Roy Dillon, a grifter whose loyalties are split between his con-artist girlfriend (Annette Bening) and his estranged mother (Anjelica Huston) in a tangled web of deceit with bloody consequences. Cusack puts in a good performance as the grifter, playing the short con, making money from people wherever he can, whilst trying to avoid being seduced into the long con by Myra (Bening), while also trying to resolve a bizarre, almost Oedipal relationship with his estranged mother Lilly (Huston). The slightly neurotic anti-hero with a humorous cool streak is the kind of role he can play in his sleep, and from what i hear is similar to his role in Ice Harvest (2005). Bening is different. She's more lively than Cusack and certainly sleazier. Her pretty face, slimline figure, and cheerful willingness to strip off hide the vicious deceiver that lies underneath, and you can't help but feel concerned for Cusack as she tries to reel him into her scam. Huston's performance is however the best of all, and Lilly remains the most complex character in The Grifters. From the moment she's introduced in Cusack's somewhat sparse apartment you can see there's more to this relationship than they let on; there's an obvious sexual tension sustained between the two until the film's climax. The darker side of her comes to light in the film's final third. Threatened on all sides, she becomes an animal fighting for survival, and shows that she will go to any length to get what she needs. Her killing Roy sums this up; while her initial reaction is one of maternal grief, she soon switches back into survival mode and quickly gets out. The cinematography is fantastic. The Grifters really achieves the noir look thanks to some clever camera work, effective lighting, and somewhat austere scenery. The characters, especially Lilly and Myra, look the part, and you can clearly see the influences here. The score, while not used much, also contributes effectively to create a tense and sometimes claustrophobic atmosphere, but isn't afraid to be loud and dramatic when needs be. However, The Grifters is not perfect. Despite solid performances, a decent script, and visual effectiveness, it seems to be missing something, and is unfortunately flawed as all good noir characters are. Perhaps it's a little too long, or the script isn't quite good enough, or the tempo is a tad too low...I couldn't put my finger on it. These small factors don't detract too much from what is otherwise a very good film. Definitely worth watching.

Stephen Frears directs this amazing adaption of a Jim Thompson book, which deals with three grifters (a person who swindles one by means of deception or fraud) who are tied to each other relationship-wise. Roy Dillion (John Cusack) is a small town grifter recuperating after a punch in the stomach for being found cheating. He finds his loyalties torn between his girlfriend and estranged mother (Annette Benning and Anjelica Huston, respectively), both of which are big time high-stakes grifters. This film is tense, exiting, and well-acted, but make no mistake about it, even though Cusack is more or less the main character, this IS Anjelica Huston's movie through and through. Her acting in this seems to shine so brightly and generally be on a higher plateau than either Cusack or Benning can hope to ascend to in the film. One of my favorite movies. My Grade: A DVD Extras: Commentary with Director Stephen Frears, Screenwriter Donald Westlake and Actors John Cusack and Angelica Huston; 16 minute Making of featurette; The Jim Thompson Story featurette; Publicity and Production stills); and Trailers for "Serendipity", "High Fidelity", Grosse Point Blank", & "40 Days And 40 Nights" Eye Candy: The future Mrs. Warren Beatty shows everything

Years ago, this was one of the films I was quite pleased with myself for seeing. I didn't know much about it, but decided to take a chance on it, with no regrets. From the opening sequence to the end credits I was mesmerized and in awe of events that communicated an entirely alien philosophy. Based on the novel by Jim Thompson, "The Grifters" tells a tale of a world that lies just under the surface of the one we know of. That is of course, if you count yourself among the squares and suckers who often fall prey to the craftsmen of the grift. With startling precision, intrigue and depth, the story unfolds chronicling the lives of three distinctly different yet intertwined individuals. Their setting and perspective is entirely foreign to the majority of us. The filmmakers portray the grifters' different methods and environments as skilled scam artists. For unless you've had a personal experience having fallen prey or gotten wise to a grifter's ploy, you'll simply have to accept the reality of it. They are out there, waiting for the suckers to be born. This particularly dark tale is very stylishly directed and moves along at a good pace. Each turn offers another sneak peek into the games played and the tricks pulled. The prey are often unaware of their own victimization as they go on about their business. Another aspect the film deals with is trust or the lack thereof. Our protagonists spend most of their time scamming, conning and tricking people so much that their sense of trust and decency breaks down. They alienate themselves from everyone, and ultimately can't even trust each other. And of course, what drama would be complete without a twisted love triangle in the mix with betrayal and murder to keep it interesting. If this doesn't sound like another day at the office, you might just find the workplace of "The Grifters" intriguing. Seeing it today, I enjoyed it as much as I did years ago, before I opened my eyes for a fresh look at the world.

source: The Grifters