What is real, what is fake? Who is playing whom for a chump? You can never be quite sure in "The Good Thief," Academy Award winner Neil Jordan's clever, sexy, jazzy riff about a legendary gambler's big score.
Set against the seductive backdrop of the French Riviera, with its swank casinos and seedy back alleys, this "Thief" has several cards up its sleeve: patter that snaps like a garter, photography as off-kilter as its characters, and music that evokes sputtering neon.
House of cards: Gerard Darmon, left, Said Taghmaoui and Nick Nolte in Neil Jordan's chaotic, glossy film noir about a legendary gambler's big score.
(David Appleby -- AP)
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The movie's ace, though, is Nick Nolte, exulting in his juiciest performance since he went mental in the 1997 drama "Affliction." Like Jordan's film, Nolte's gambler-thief harks back to Jean-Pierre Melville's "Bob le Flambeur," an arid French film noir heavily populated by chain smokers. Nolte's bedraggled, shambling Bob has little in common with the original film's debonair, clearheaded high roller (Roger Duchesne) except that both are local legends recently dumped by Lady Luck.
Bob (pronounced "Bobuh" by the multinational cast) is hooked on heroin, horses and fine art. Wretch that he is, he remains one of the most revered thieves of the Cote d'Azur. Plus he's such charming company that even Roger (Tcheky Karyo), his pal on the police force, loves the guy and nudges him toward the straight and narrow.
Of course, after Bob loses the last of his cash on a nag, he gives in to a buddy's plan to rob a Monte Carlo casino the night before the Grand Prix. The scheme involves two synchronous heists. Ostensibly, the target is the safe at the gambling establishment, where copies of celebrated artworks loom over and are ignored by the chic clientele. Bob and his crew are actually planning to burgle the real paintings, which are stored in the proverbial impregnable vault.
Bob could use the cash, but it's the beauty he craves. He adores Picasso, whom he views as a kindred spirit because the great artist "stole from everybody," says Bob, who claims to have won one of his canvases in a bet on a bullfight. "Pablo bet on the matador; I bet on the bull. The matador got 26 stitches; I got the painting."
Is it for real? Or isn't it? In the end, does it make any difference?
If Jordan were truly flirting with Melville's faux fatalism, he might feel obliged to come up with an answer. Although the writer-director hews to the plot of the original, he draws more heavily upon the caprice of "To Catch a Thief." This is a chaotic, glossy film noir, the perfect antidote to the posturing of "Ocean's Eleven."
The exotic cast, which includes Ralph Fiennes as a flop-sweating fence and art dealer, lends sure-footed support for Nolte's delightful turn. But it's the old guy's show.
Nolte is not only made for the role, he's also rehearsed it in real life. He's gruff and funny and, as in his recent mug shot, he looks like an unmade bed. And he's got a knack for playing the down-and-out with dignity, cheek and a sense of mischief. He may be a scoundrel here, but not a dirty rotten one.
The Good Thief (109 minutes, at area theaters) is rated R for raw language, some violence and brief nudity.
