Review of The Grifters (1990) by Matthew T — 30 Jun 2008

The Grifters, released in 1990, was director Stephen Frears' follow-up to his very successful Dangerous Liaisons. John Cusack plays Roy, whose life on the grift is challenged when a minor scam lands him in the hospital, where his estranged mom Lilly (Anjelica Huston) meets his current girlfriend, Myra (Annette Bening) with instant disdain: she recognizes herself 20 years earlier.

Lilly begs Roy to get off the grift, but he loves the life too much and can leave it any time ("Now where have I heard that before?" she aks mordantly, much later in the film). Opposing Lilly's maternal instincts is Myra, who is struggling to survive off the square without a partner: she needs Roy to team up to ensure her survival.

Within this triangulation, each character is angling one against the other for the remainder of the picture, with strikingly desperate results for all. The picture's adapted screenplay (by Donald Westlake) is strong on stylized dialogue; almost every line is a gem.

Complementing the picture's ice cold core is brilliant cinematography and a score (named "one of our best" by no less than Martin Scorsese ((who produced)) by Hollywood master Elmer Bernstein.

Each performance is pitch perfect, but this is film noir, and Roy is in the women's web; both Huston and Benning (each Oscar-nominated for their work here) chew the scenery and push the story forward with cold brilliance.

Each scene is so strong it is almost a set piece unto itself, but a few standouts deserve mention; the characters introduced at the film's opening via splitscreen, Lilly and Roy's reunion, Myra explaining her former cons, Lilly encountering her boss Bobo, who teaches her about 'the oranges', and many more.

The Grifters, while limited in scope, suggests, like Dangerous Liaisons, a world, whether among royals and courtiers or mob bossess and grifters, in which we are dangerously alone---and always a step away from annihilation.

These are bitter realizations, but when served with such brio, one forgets for a moment the war life often is.