I had the best night’s sleep of my adult life at a Travel Lodge in Williams, Arizona, which is on East Route 66, exactly half-way from Telluride to Los Angeles.
- 9/3/2013
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
PARK CITY, Utah -- "Thick as Thieves" is a nifty genre piece of the Elmore Leonard caliber. Starring Alec Baldwin and Andre Braugher as a pair of professional criminals, it proved an entertaining piece at the Sundance Film Festival.
Admittedly, "Thieves" is decidedly thin in the plotting but its easygoing charms should nonetheless make it appealing to general audiences.
Basically, "Thick as Thieves" is a revenge story: professional thief Mackin (Baldwin) has been burned by some Detroit hoods and set up for some dirty cops -- and all over a measly $20 grand. To say the least, such treatment irks the normally easygoing Mackin and he wastes no time in extracting revenge.
Things quickly get out of hand as the boys from Detroit, in this case some on-the-rise black mobsters, take serious exception to Mackin's payback methods. Plotwise, there's not too much to "Thieves", but its the coloring that makes it click. In particular, the Mackin character is intriguing: he's a jazz aficionado and like Nick Charles, he dotes on his terrier. The film's subplot, involving Mackin's affection for the pooch, is at once entertaining and touching.
While the narrative blasts around the friction between the old-style Chicago mobsters, which Mackin allies with, and the young thugs from Detroit, whose style and hair-trigger tendencies go against the niceties of professional protocol among criminals, the film delivers with its character etchings.
Screenwriter and director Scott Sanders demonstrates a cool hand with the actors, especially. Unfortunately, some of the dialogue, particularly in the film's comic thrusts, is downright clanky and overwritten. Still, the storytelling is appealing and engaging overall.
The acting is the film's high point, with Alec Baldwin delivering an especially well-fleshed performance. Baldwin's precise performance nicely limns a meticulous but very driven man, a man with vast contradictions between his personal and professional life.
Andre Braugher is dead-on terrific as the pragmatic Detroit hood with the unlikely moniker of Dink. Braugher's cool swagger and ice-cold glare, reminiscent somewhat of his former "Homicide" character, clue us to his character's ambition and menace. Rebecca De Mornay is solid as an intrepid detective whose professional savvy is sometimes thwarted by her personal inclinations.
Under Sanders' tight directorial hand, the technical contributions are solid. Befitting the film's modern-day noir sensibility, Christopher Walling's cinematography sizzles with menacing colors and tightly-packed action. Production designer Denize Pizzini's look captures perfectly the clash of styles and sensibilities, as well as the honor and dishonor among these "Thieves".
THICK AS THIEVES
October Films
Producers: Donald Zuckerman, Glenn Zoller, John Steingart
Screenwriter/director: Scott Sanders
Executive producer: Andrew Pfeffer
Director of photography: Christopher Walling
Production designer: Denise Pizzini
Color/stereo
Cast:
Macklin: Alec Baldwin
Dink : Andre Braugher
Detective: Rebecca De Mornay
Pointy Williams: Ricky Harris
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R...
Admittedly, "Thieves" is decidedly thin in the plotting but its easygoing charms should nonetheless make it appealing to general audiences.
Basically, "Thick as Thieves" is a revenge story: professional thief Mackin (Baldwin) has been burned by some Detroit hoods and set up for some dirty cops -- and all over a measly $20 grand. To say the least, such treatment irks the normally easygoing Mackin and he wastes no time in extracting revenge.
Things quickly get out of hand as the boys from Detroit, in this case some on-the-rise black mobsters, take serious exception to Mackin's payback methods. Plotwise, there's not too much to "Thieves", but its the coloring that makes it click. In particular, the Mackin character is intriguing: he's a jazz aficionado and like Nick Charles, he dotes on his terrier. The film's subplot, involving Mackin's affection for the pooch, is at once entertaining and touching.
While the narrative blasts around the friction between the old-style Chicago mobsters, which Mackin allies with, and the young thugs from Detroit, whose style and hair-trigger tendencies go against the niceties of professional protocol among criminals, the film delivers with its character etchings.
Screenwriter and director Scott Sanders demonstrates a cool hand with the actors, especially. Unfortunately, some of the dialogue, particularly in the film's comic thrusts, is downright clanky and overwritten. Still, the storytelling is appealing and engaging overall.
The acting is the film's high point, with Alec Baldwin delivering an especially well-fleshed performance. Baldwin's precise performance nicely limns a meticulous but very driven man, a man with vast contradictions between his personal and professional life.
Andre Braugher is dead-on terrific as the pragmatic Detroit hood with the unlikely moniker of Dink. Braugher's cool swagger and ice-cold glare, reminiscent somewhat of his former "Homicide" character, clue us to his character's ambition and menace. Rebecca De Mornay is solid as an intrepid detective whose professional savvy is sometimes thwarted by her personal inclinations.
Under Sanders' tight directorial hand, the technical contributions are solid. Befitting the film's modern-day noir sensibility, Christopher Walling's cinematography sizzles with menacing colors and tightly-packed action. Production designer Denize Pizzini's look captures perfectly the clash of styles and sensibilities, as well as the honor and dishonor among these "Thieves".
THICK AS THIEVES
October Films
Producers: Donald Zuckerman, Glenn Zoller, John Steingart
Screenwriter/director: Scott Sanders
Executive producer: Andrew Pfeffer
Director of photography: Christopher Walling
Production designer: Denise Pizzini
Color/stereo
Cast:
Macklin: Alec Baldwin
Dink : Andre Braugher
Detective: Rebecca De Mornay
Pointy Williams: Ricky Harris
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R...
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