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 ilm
director and Pulitzer Award-winning writer (for Glengarry Glen Ross)
David Mamet's works are like
intricately designed origami puzzles. Layers of plot, characterization,
emotion and dialogue unfold in front of the audience with expert precision
and timing. With a deft hand, he has traversed genres with 1999's period
drama The Winslow Boy and last year's superbly intelligent comedy State
and Main. With Heist,
however, Mamet returns to the familiar territory of crime thriller, where
his previous successes include the brilliantly plotted House of Games.Given the complexity of Mamet's work, it's not surprising that Heist brings together a stellar cast of thespians noted for their depth. Gene Hackman plays Joe, a jewel thief whose cover is blown and wants nothing more than to retire. Danny DeVito is Bergman, the gangster who pulls Joe back in for one last job. Bergman's nephew, Jimmy, who is assigned the task of keeping Joe from turning against his uncle, is played by Sam Rockwell who received praise for his portrayal of 'Wild Bill' Wharton in The Green Mile. (He was more recently seen as the cold-hearted villain who seduces Drew Barrymore in Charlie's Angels). As with many other works by Mamet, Heist also stars his real-life wife Rebecca Pidgeon, who plays Joe's wife. |
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An actor's actor, Hackman has always been able to convey a myriad of
emotions under his homespun Midwestern looks. As the feisty priest in The
Poseidon Adventure and as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection,
he played an outraged, decent man. As the U.S. president in Clint
Eastwood's Absolute Power, Hackman played decency terribly
twisted. His strengths as a solid, versatile actor keeps winning him
starring roles when, at age 71, he has spent over four decades in show
business.Similarly, Danny DeVito has made a career of portraying characters whose duality keeps him walking a tight-rope between callousness and tenderness. Diminutive, rotund and balding, he is an unlikely Hollywood success story. But combining his rough, Brooklyn-style delivery with the sensitivity apparent in his large brown eyes, he has met with one success after another, from his long-time role as Louie in the TV series Taxi, to the haunting interpretation of the villain Penguin in Batman Returns. He is adept at playing vulnerable, as he did in 1987's Throw Mama from the Train, but in Heist, he returns to what he does best, being snide and duplicitous. Another feature of recent films by Mamet is the presence of Pidgeon. Although she was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she grew up in Edinburgh and studied acting in London. She met Mamet, who is 19 years her senior, in 1989 on the set of his play, Speed-the-Plow. She came to the U.S. in 1991, and they were married shortly afterwards. Among roles for which she garnered critical acclaim are the  cagey
Susan in The Spanish Prisoner, the principled Catherine in The
Winslow Boy and the intelligent and generous Ann in State and Main,
all of which are Mamet films.Heist is a typical work by Mamet, which is to say it is not typical at all. Its complexity requires a cast that is capable of multi-dimensional characterization. Fortunately, Heist has pulled off a tremendously talented cast. - Rui Umezawa |