MovieChat Forums > The Grifters (1991) Discussion > What the hell??

What the hell??

posted 12 years ago by I_Created_U
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm so disappointed by that movie to say the least!

Especially after it started so good with Cusack in the bar ripping off the barman and the coin guy with really neat tricks. After that scene i thought well, they gonna show us some stuff like smart scams and brilliant swindles, but except the 2 small tricks from the beginning and maybe the big money scam with JT Walsh, there's nothing else!
The majority of the film is just small talk and bla bla that doesn't bring u anywhere.
All the characters were weird: the relation ship between bobo and the mother, first violent then nice, JT Walsh first smart then creepy crazy, the mother first heartless, then kinda nice, then psycho and finally psycho and pervert. Myra's psychology was also difficult to surround, very manipulative and then the murder attempt, and Cusack as well, didn't get what his agenda was and the bizarre half-sexual relationship with his mom was awkward, the way she pretended at the end not being his mom and tried to kiss him? Yuk and weird! I guess she was ready to anything to get the money at the end, even to literally fvck her son!
Everything was still kinda on tracks till Myra tries to kill Lilly, from then on everything went downhill and became very confused IMO.
And at the end when Lilly kills Roy, didn't get why she didn't take all the money...
I don't know, at the end the movie left me mixed feelings and i felt the story made not much sense, i asked myself eventually what was the movie about? Greed? Don't trust no one, even ur own mom? Crime doesn't pay? Grifters livelihood end bad? I dunno... The story didn't work for me...
Especially because i just watched "Bound" which happened to be a underrated masterpiece, then "Body Heat" which was awesome, and then this?? With a 7/10 rating i expected much more and certainly not such a irrational ending.

Definitely not worth it IMHO... I gave it a lousy 5/10.

Peace

"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs"

[–] polyscygyrl 12 years ago

OH I couldn't agree more with your assessment! Besides the fact that it really felt meandering, I kept wondering -- what is the real story supposed to be? Not that a film can't have more than one theme, but this is not a Fellini, it is linear and it seems the director WANTS to tell a story, but just can't figure out which story to tell. This would have been much better told as a 40-minute TV episode, or made into 4-8 good movies which explored the themes.

I'll be checking out "Bound," as you seem to recommend as a better version of a modern noir.

[–] muncieboy 12 years ago

Agree on all fronts. This movie has not stood the test of time.

It pretty much made no sense and there was hardly any grifting!

The whole thing just felt...stilted.

Poor story, bad writing, okay acting (I guess). But pretty lackluster all the way around.

[–] Sulaimone 11 years ago

The film wasn't about grifting, it was about grifters. It was just a peek inside their lives. If they fleshed out every little detail, the film would've gone on for hours. The viewer of any movie is required to partake in the story by using some imagination.

[–] balthazar_bee 11 years ago

"Lackluster"? I think this is a superbly rendered little crime film.

Maybe it helps to have an affinity for the works of people like Donald Westlake and Jim Thompson; there's a world-weary, workmanlike feel to the proceedings. People are either willing to feverishly pursue their own agendas or they're little more than suckers. And sometimes both at the same time. There aren't any wasted moments spent making the characters likable, because it's not important that we like them, but everything they do is fascinating.

I'd argue that this is one of the best crime films of the nineties. I can leave the poor story complaint alone, but bad writing? It's razor sharp, but not overly showy.

If this film were made in the forties, aside from the violence and nudity, it'd fit right in with the best films of that era. Bening has the kind of part that might've gone to someone like Gloria Grahame -- and man, does she nail it. You know she's a conniving little ball of self-interest, but you don't care, because she's so damn sexy.

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 10 years ago

Sulamone is correct, it's about (The) Grift-ERS (title says it all. If it was about a particular heist it'd maybe be called "the Grift"). It's a character study of three criminals, what motivates them, how they live...

Like many Jim Thompson stories, it's a peek into the lives and minds of people on the edge - the edge of society, of sanity, etc.