[6]
James Caan plays an elite safe-cracker in this stylish crime drama from director Michael Mann (Heat, The Last of the Mohicans). When a high profile gangster (Robert Prosky) offers him a lifetime of lucrative heist opportunities, Caan takes him up — but only for one job. After that, he plans to settle down with a wife (Tuesday Weld), buy a house, have some kids and live the rest of his life as normally as possible. The heist goes off without a hitch, but when Prosky double-crosses Caan, war begins.
Thief feels like just one of several subplots going on in Mann’s later masterpiece, Heat — so much so that I almost feel you don’t need to see Thief if you’ve seen Heat. That is, unless you’re just a fan of Michael Mann’s shiny style or James Caan’s acting. Caan is terrific (as usual) here, playing a man who seems to suffer from an odd sort of arrested development, having been in prison for the first ten years of his young adulthood. Scenes where he tries to negotiate a marriage with Weld’s character are peculiar but fascinating. She’s aware of his dark past and has some darkness in her own. As quirky as they are, we feel for them and want all the best for them.
The other standout performance is from Robert Prosky as the avuncular gangster. Prosky’s been one of my favorite character actors for some time, and this may be his single-best performance — one that must surely have informed Albert Brooks’ Oscar-nominated turn in Drive. The warmth and love-bombing he does for Caan makes it all the more devastating when he turns cruel and merciless in the final act.
As dynamic as the characters are, the plot to Thief is a little too thin. If you’re not willing to sit back and bask in Michael Mann’s glossy nighttime ambiance and Tangerine Dream’s hypno-synth scoring, you might get a little impatient with the film. I think Thief could be twenty or even thirty minutes shorter, but Caan, Prosky, and the overall vibe of the piece make it worth a gander.
With Jim Belushi as Caan’s partner in crime, and singer Willie Nelson as an incarcerated father figure.