capsule : this is a 1950s or 1960s style heist film , set in the present .
robert deniro stars as a risk-adverse safecracker who wants to retire form crime but takes one last job at the request of a personal friend ( played by marlon brando ) .
edward norton plays a hotshot young sharpster who is also in on the crime .
the plot is mostly straightforward suspense with little nonsense .
, +2 ( -4 to +4 )
i am sure i must have seen almost the identical plot before .
this is a heist film made for an adult audience who probably wanted a crime film like they had seen in theaters when they were teens .
there are no superhuman acrobats taking nosedives off of buildings like in entrapment .
there is no rock score .
there are no ballet- like martial arts .
this is just a basic heist film with a decent and distinctly credible and un-flashy script .
nick ( played by robert deniro ) is a safecracker who has managed to be successful by never taking risks .
if a job is not a safe bet ( pun intended ) , he backs out .
sometimes even the safe bets turn out not to be so safe .
when one job very nearly goes wrong nick is unnerved enough to decide that it is nature telling him that it is time to get out of the game .
he returns to his home in montreal where he owns a jazz club , and decides to manage it full time .
he proposes to his girl friend diane ( angela bassett ) .
she has one condition .
he must stay retired from crime .
but before the deal can be cemented , max , a montreal kingpin and personal friend , has one last supposedly easy job for nick .
nick wants no part particularly because the heist will be right in his hometown of montreal .
more and more details seem to complicate the job .
nick’s partner in the crime is to be a smart , but uncontrollable young crook , jack ( edward norton ) .
jack treats a locked front door like a welcome mat , even at his associates’ homes .
the young crook is a know-it-all who seems good at everything he does but at avoiding rubbing people the wrong way .
together they plan to steal a priceless historic artifact from the montreal customs house .
the script by kario salem , lem dobbs , and scott marshall smith works like an episode of the old ” mission impossible ” television series .
we see pieces of the heist being put together , last minute changes , and things that go wrong , much like a good episode of ” mission impossible . ”
this team might not be bad choices to write scripts for the tom cruise ” mission impossible ” films .
the complications are , however no more and no fewer than are needed to make the story believable .
the telling is cold and noirish , which is just what it is supposed to be .
director frank oz , the voices of yoda and miss piggy proves surprisingly good at directing a serious crime film .
the score has a more than adequate cast with little flashy or scene-stealing acting .
edward norton probably has the flashiest role and even that is low-key by today’s standards .
he plays what is nearly a double role .
jack pretends to be a brain damage victim to be hired for a job in the customs house .
one nice ( ? )
character i have not mentioned is stephen ( jamie harrold ) .
stephen is a master hacker who lives in his mother’s basement in a house with a lot of screaming in both directions .
he seems like the last person the risk adverse nick would want to depend upon .
the film itself remains low-key up until the time of the climactic heist .
then the pace really picks up .
before that the plot even stops twice for jazz interludes .
though oz never lets the music steal time from the story the way woody allen does in sweet and lowdown .
on the subject of music , the score of the score is by howard shore .
it adds tension to the suspense scenes , but never seems to have much of a melody .
angela bassett is the one misused celebrity in a totally minor role that should have been played by a less famous actress who needed a break .
she has nothing to do in the film but demand that nick give up crime and to look like an attractive reward if he does .
speaking of being attractive the score seems to be attracting an older audience who learned to appreciate much the same sort of film in the 1950s and 1960s .
it does the job .
i rate it a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale .