Grifters (Widescreen)

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU


The towering work of Stephem Frears!   July 1, 2004
Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a splendid film. One of the hard movies of this decade. A chess game in the purest sense of the word. The underworld of these little gamblers ond fortune seekers was depicted with origianilty and built on a solid script and secondary characters that enrich even more this story.
Angelica Huston is her best performance (I like even her Award performance Prizzi's honor) ; John Cussack made a brighting performance and Anette Benning superb.
The film plays hard . It's a neo film noir but it keeps for the viewer several smart bits and clever twist of fate: a little homagge to "The sting" ; in the middle of the movie and fine dialogues ; specially in the tour de force dialogue Huston and her son and the frenetic and anguishly fight Huston - Benning in the motel .
Frears is a very original film maker but besides its intimate character this film may be well considered his masterpiece.


"A thing like this rarely happens..."   May 23, 2004
Liz (Seattle, WA USA)
Those of us who love this film, love it a lot. It is one of my all time top films that I watch shamelessly for record numbers of times and love the same, if not more. So, The Grifters is right up there on my big board along with Body Heat, Black Widow, Peggy Sue Got Married, Hannibal, Silence of the Lambs, Diabolique (the original)and Splendor in the Grass (the original)and The Long Good Friday. Atmosphere, performances, dazzling movie style and grace, heart and soul.

I will never understand how Jeremy Irons, during his visit with James Lipton on Inside the Actor's Studio, could possibly state that American films lacked soul while the British films had long since cornered the market in that particular quality. The Grifters is as loaded to the gills with every quality necessary to film greatness as the greatest British, or any other European film ever made.

This film always has impressed me as a very close relation to the fabulous "Long Good Friday" with Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren (English Gangster film par exellence). These folks are not burdened with the need to justify their lives or livelihoods. Remember Bob Hoskins character reminiscing fondly about his boyhood start as a gangster doing some scam with cars and intimidation. Whenever the grifter or the gangster gets a big dose of self-righteous indignation, it is alway for his or her own benefit and never applied to another victim, harmless or otherwise.

I love the blurring of eras in the Grifters, the feeling that although the story is depicted in the 1980's, it has the rich, indefinable quality of Alfred Hitchcock's films from the 1950's. The Grifters takes the American film to the top of the world's cinema and challenges the rest of the world to do better.

On a sadder note, it is also the pinnacle of American short-sightednes and just plain old bourgeois lack of artistic sense, not to award films like Grifters the big awards that are so well deserved. Perhaps the Academy feels that you can only let a good independent film have its day every ten or so years and let the Cannes Film Festival, or Sundance, or whoever take care of the rest of the finest productions of cinematic artistry.


Stephen Frears' Best Work   May 11, 2004
Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX)
If, like me, you saw and loved Stephen Frears' 2003 outing "Dirty Pretty Things" (starring Audrey Tautou in her first English-speaking role), consider going back and watching what is arguably his finest effort, "The Grifters."

This is a wonderful movie featuring three very talented actors. In 1990, John Cusack was just transitioning into adult roles, in much the same way his character Roy Dillon is doing. A perfect fit.

Annette Benning lets it all hang out, as she has done with all of her performances, even after ascending into Hollywood royalty as Mrs. Warren Beatty.

Despite those stellar performances, they're still no match for Angelica Huston. She is truly magnetic as Cusak's mother, Lilly.

Also worthy of note is long-time character actor Pat Hingle's turn as Lilly's boss, Bobo Justus. It's essentially a cameo role, but it's the performance that stands out foremost in my mind two months after viewing.


A Great Addition to the Con Genre   May 4, 2004
Greg Fickas (Centennial, CO USA)
Just like in The Sting where the audience is ultimately the victim of the scam/plot of the film, The Grifters finally makes the viewer challenge what they know about the three main characters in the film.

Since the three leads played by John Cusack, Angelica Huston, and Annette Benning, are all in the business of deceiving other people for profit, we have to treat what they say with more than a little skepticism. In fact, by the end of the film, we have to wonder if these characters are so immersed in their world of "the grift" that they can't even be truthful with themselves.

Is Lily really Roy's mother? She thinks so, if it will help her survive.