From Jim Thompson's pulp novel, a deliciously unsavory mix of immorality, fear and contempt. Three con-artists cross paths in Los Angeles: John Cusack is a small-time grifter waiting for his chance to cross into the big time; Anjelica Huston is Cusack's estranged mother, a cool-as-ice platinum-blonde who bets on horses for an underworld kingpin to change their odds; and Annette Bening is Cusack's sex-kitten neighbor who had a successful 10-year run working a brokerage scam. The film isn't really about double-crosses (though that does ultimately happen)--it has much more of a dangerous, crackling undercurrent than your typical revenge melodrama. However, in the film's unpredictable, high-wire final third, it skitters through some major plot developments with too blasé a shrug, and the audience is ultimately let down. One can forgive the lack of exposition in some of the minor scams (such as a group of happy sailors being rolled by Cusack and his 'found' dice on the train), but the bigger occurrences needed more of a thoughtful hand from the filmmakers. Director Stephen Frears comes on loaded for bear, and his picture is fast and loose, but perhaps he didn't anticipate how locked-in these characters would become to the viewer, and as such the tag at the end is hollow (it seems like a prank). Incredible performances, particularly by Huston and Bening, make it worth-seeing. **1/2 from ****
Review of The Grifters
