Stephen Frears The Grifters (1990) stays true to the spirit and many of the specifics of Jim Thompson's 1963 noir novel of the same title. It is a lesson in human psychology and the freakonomics of grifting (swindling). Essentially, grifting only works with economy of scale: corporate size grifting. Smalltime grifting will get you nowhere and is a dangerous, self-destructive pursuit. It is too small to succeed over the long run. Corporate-size grifting, on the other hand, is more often "too big to fail," making millionaires of its psychopathic avatars; its destruction is aimed at everyone else but the perpetrators.
In The Grifters, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening and John Cusack are superb as unlikeable protaganists, smalltime mental cases who overestimate their grifting skills. Their characters are relatively small bit players going nowhere. Secondary players -- all good -- include Pat Hingle (the judge in Hang 'Em High, 1968); Henry Jones (Leroy the halfwit in The Bad Seed, 1956); J.T. Walsh (The lawyer in The Last Seduction with Linda Fiorentino, 1993) Stephen Tobolowsky (Deadwood, Californication); plus Jeremy Piven before hair implants as a sailor (Ari on Entourage). Director Stephen Frears has presided over the creation of many excellent, thoughtful films ranging from My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) to The Queen (2006).
Finally, the "period" details in The Grifters show just how much has changed in the past two decades. There are several payphones, primitive computers, large cars, no SUVs, no cellphones. It is most apparently a different world, though human nature remains the same.
Today's Rune: Harvest.
4 comments:
A good cast of actors.
Erik, that was the first time I learned of the word 'grifters'. Good flick!
My favorite Stephen Frears movie is "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid."
"The Grifters" was great, but very depressing!
I loved that movie. I love John Cusack.
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