Review of The Grifters (1990) by Ryan H — 09 Oct 2011

What a surprising film. Mainly for the fact that it never went anywhere I expected it to go. When Lilly showed up and started protecting her son she is fighting with Myra. Oh, so the film is going to be about the mother fighting for a new relationship with her long lost son? Nope. Roy gets caught while doing one of his popular tricks and gets hit in the stomach. So the film is going to be about him trying some bigger job and this is foreshadowing what will happen? Nope. This is a neo-noir that tells the story of three characters and how their twisted lives connect. Roy left home when he was 17 and made a living by banking on other people's mistakes. Small tricks, like showing a bartender a 20 then slipping him a 10 without realizing it, so he still gets the full change of the 20. Then he cons groups of people after getting them to like him. But they never continue past their first meeting. This is what his teacher taught him. Myra is the woman interested in Roy. She is a sex fiend. There is no man she won't have sex with to get her way. Lilly is the mother that gave birth to Roy at the age of 14 and she had always been embarrassed by him. But she is a grifter as well. She works for the mob to take car of the horse track winnings. Basically she bets on horses with higher payouts so they will lower and the mob won't lose as much money. I know nothing of gambling at horse races, but they do a great job of setting everything up. Lilly wants Roy to go straight, but Roy will do whatever he wants to do. He's 25 now and he's been doing fine on his own for 8 years. When Myra discovers that Roy is a grifter as well she tries to rope him in on a big grift. No, he can't. That was the number one rule. If someone goes into a big grift then they are grifting their partner. There's no way to trust a single word she will say. So she's the femme fatale and the film is going to show him get screwed over by this scheme? Nope.

**SPOILERS**.

It's more about his mother being the femme fatale in a strange way. Myra rats out Lilly for stealing money and then follows her to a motel, where she tries to kill her but Lilly flips the table. Everyone believes Lilly was the one killed, but she is still alive and Roy knows it. Roy goes home to see his mother in his house trying to steal his money. Well, that's not cool. She needs to go straight now that her identity is cleared. If she goes back to the tracks then they will know she faked it. But Lilly isn't going to quite. She wants Roy's money and she will get it no matter what. Even by hitting on him. There is a strange sexual tension between them straight from the beginning when she kisses him on the lips. So sex should get him to give her the money like a film noir? Nope. He refuses. Roy sticks to his guns and LILLY EFFING KILLS HIM! The film takes many crazy twists and turns, but the reason why it works is because it focuses on the characters. The twists don't come just to surprise the audience, they come because it's the time for the character to do something. It feels natural. Even though it's slow at times and I just wanted things to get to the point, I was really into the story. The Grifters is an excellent film to check out for the neo noirs!