Review of The Grifters (1990) by Richard D — 05 Mar 2018
John Cusack stars as a small time con man in this adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel. He makes his living doing stuff like flashing a 20 at bartenders but slipping them a 10 when he pays for the drinks.
He is visited by his mother (Anjelica Huston), who makes a living working fora bookie placing bets at racetracks to lower the odds on long shots. Cusack is suffering from internal bleeding from a blow in the stomach from a bartender who was wise to his tricks, and Huston gets him to the hopital in time to save his life.
She meets his girlfriend Annette Bening and the two take an instant dislike to each other. Bening has discovered what Cusack does for a living and wants his help renewing her career as part of a group that puts on elaborate and lucrative cons.
When Cusack refuses, it sets up a final confrontation between the three. There is a lot to like about this film. The three leads are great, with Cusack being perhaps the weakest having just graduated from the world of teen comedies at the time.
The supporting cast is even better ... Pat Hingle, Stephen Tobolowsky, Henry Jones and J.T. Walsh all show up. The film is set in 1990, but the production design creates a more ambiguous setting ... the costumes and decor all seem a couple of decades out of date.
That lets some of the aspects of the plot that seems more appropriate to the original 1950's setting kind of work. Donald Westlake's script is excellent with one glaring exception ... he has a tendency to take expanatory text from the novel and put it into the mouth of characters.
This review of The Grifters (1990) was written by Richard D on 05 Mar 2018.
The Grifters has generally received positive reviews.
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