Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Powerful

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

An above average film noir but strangely flat and unengaging. All the ingredients are there for a really great movie but it never quite hits the mark. John Cusack is alright but not amazing, Annette Benning is frankly irritating, Angelica Huston is very good, given the dialogue she had to work with.The story beats aren't very well executed, especially the ending and the dialogue is sketchy in places. Worth a watch for fans of the genre but I wouldn't watch it again. The film simply isn't much fun or particularly stimulating to watch. I'm a little mystified as to why it got 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.

An indie crime-drama fixes on a veiled Oedipus complex relationship between a mother and his son, which also involves another pivotal figure, the son's femme fatale girlfriend. One background consensus is that they are all grifters, while the mother is an old-hander, the girlfriend is a slutty self-seeker, they are pros, bar the son is just a small-time crook and being too righteous to go down with the swindle business, what's worse is that he has no sway in juggle with these two women, after the mother hoodwinks a handsome amount of cash from her ferocious boss, which ignites a series of cutthroat happenings which ends in a quite blatantly bold epilogue. The film was an Oscar dark horse in 1991, amassed 4 nominations including BEST DIRECTOR for Frears and BEST ACTRESS for Angelica Huston and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS for Anette Bening (although I don't consider its script an ace one since there are many marked plot-holes buried inside despite of its Oscar nomination). These two ladies at the most time share an analog aspect (have been mistaken at least twice in the film), Anjelica holds a glaringly formidable aura and her and Cusack's near-incest impulse pushes the film to its culmination of wallowing in a state of indie-charisma. Bening, whose vixen seductiveness has been laid bare unreservedly, pre-empts that the future Ms. Beatty would not earn that title without any man- conquering expertise. John Cusack, top-billed in the film and delivers a marvelous performance as well, whose repeatedly undervalued acting career showed his dexterous prowness at the beginning, sadly, it never kick-started. (All the three performances and the director are among my top 10 ranking, the film barely missed my top 10 though). For director Stephen Frears, the film differs from his more prestigious works, say THE QUEEN (2006), it certainly has a more noir-ish tone in assembling the intensified thrills with an uneven script (just take one example, it never quite explained how the money being left in the car after the accident, so Lilly, Huston's character, has to steal the money from her son). But thanks to Frears, the film at the very least establishes itself as a progenitor of the crime genre in the 90s, where violence is always hidden somewhere and executed where you are unprepared.

The Grifters is not really a movie, it's a language with verbs only about life and debt. It is an almost comic rhyme about punches to the gut and the moral ambiguities of being on the slide. Even for the con, life ain't free.The actors in this odyssey largely speak in physical grammar and the slick, witty and hard boiled dialog is largely muzak. Anjelica Houston's Lilly postures in brash suits like a school girl far beyond her years - even though she seen a few already. That's not to say Lilly doesn't utter a few daggers now and then - "My son will be all right, if not I'll have you killed."Cusack's Roy barely utters every meager syllable while clenching his gut with a half open stare. Roy sells self confidence and wants to be a real con, but never listens enough to mom, even though she wrote the book. Roy frequently brushes with dangers and somehow mom is always there to save his life. "Second time I gave it to you." Then there is Annette Bennign's Myra, Roy's giggle "Friend," trotting around like a bobble head fixture on a taxi dashboard with clip on earrings but garnering enough attention to slice you from behind for a dollar. You can well imagine she is a lot of people's friend. Just ask the landlord.Each of these performers puts in what well may be the best performance of their careers. Director Stephen Frears uses a restrained hand on Donald E. Westlake's literal script and largely lets the actors play this out on their own.So greed is good? Maybe for Myra. Ultimately The Grifters is about survival and the illusion of getting something for nothing. But even somewhere inside Roy knows not everything is a free ride, "Lilly, I guess I owe you my life.""You always did."

From Stephen Frears comes The Grifters, a highly colourful and riveting film noir. Frears' direction is superb, with smooth shifts between the audacious scams, the sudden violence and the intense rivalry between the characters. The film looks very stylish not just in the cinematography but also in the scenery, editing and costumes. The Grifters also benefits from a cracking, well-paced story and superb writing that is both witty and intense. When it comes to the film's acting, it is very good. Except that John Cusack comes across as rather bland and lightweight. Cusack aside, both Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening deliver power-house performances, and out of a terrific supporting cast JT Walsh and Charles Napier particularly impress. All in all, a wonderful film that succeeds in pretty much all areas. 9/10 Bethany Cox