The Good Thief

Director Neil Jordan’s (The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire) remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1955 minor safecracking classic Bob le flambeur nearly overwhelms the robbery at the core of the story with mythic underworld resonance, stuttering freeze frames and a fertile, ultra-cool sound score. Nick Nolte stars as expatriate Monte Carlo gambler-junkie Bob Montagnet, whose flash and glory days as a master burglar have been replaced with the ravages of nightlife, world-weary chivalry and a run of very bad luck. Nolte keeps the convoluted crime story intriguing and humming with red-blooded character as Bob befriends a teen Russian émigré (Nutsa Kukhianidze), kicks his heroin habit by handcuffing himself, spars with the local detective (Tchéky Karyo) and takes on the forever romanticized “one last huge heist.”