Review of The Grifters (1990) by Stuart K — 05 Aug 2013

Directed by Stephen Frears and produced by Martin Scorsese, this neo-noir was adapted from the 1963 book of the same name by Jim Thompson (The Getaway and The Killer Inside Me), this is a twisty and clever thriller where nothing is what it seems.

Frears at the time had just finished Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and wanted to do a film in America, he struck gold here with this film. Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston) has spent most of her life as a con artist, and she's trying to re-examine and rethink her life, after her son Roy (John Cusack) suffers a beating after a scam goes wrong.

Lilly works for violent bookmaker Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle), who punishes Lilly if any of her schemes go wrong. Roy's girlfriend Myra Langtry (Annette Bening) is a few years older than Roy, and she also does scams, and she wants Roy to come in with her on a scam she has planned.

But Roy doesn't want to let his mother down, who it turns out has been stealing money from Bobo for years, and Lilly finds her life in danger shortly afterwards. Frears gets the best out of his cast here, and playing off one another, and you don't know whose side they're on, and how it could end out.

While this story has been updated to the 1990's, it would have been interesting to know what it would have looked like if they'd kept it set in the 1960's, but it's very good as it is.