Name: Gambit (2012)
IMDb: link to the Gambit (2012) page
Cast:
Colin Firth as Harry Deane, Alan Rickman as Lionel Shabandar, Tom Courtenay as The Major, Cameron Diaz as PJ Puznowski, Spencer Cummins as Sgt Puznowski, Cloris Leachman as Grandma Merle Puznowski, Stanley Tucci as Zaidenweber, Togo Igawa as Takagawa.
Directed by: Michael Hoffman. Written by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (screenplay); Sidney Carroll (short story).
 |
| image courtesy of TMDb |
The initial tableaux:
Harry Deane hates his blowhard multimillionaire boss, Shabandar, who collects art. Harry is moderately well paid as Shabandar's art curator. Harry's long time friend, The Major, has a fine hand at forging known works of master oil painters.
Some years back, Shabandar bested the Japanese art collector Takagawa at the auction of Monet's Haystacks in the Morning. Shabandar would dearly love to acquire the companion piece, Haystacks in the Evening. Evening was lost in World War II, but Harry sees an opportunity.
Delineation of conflicts:
Harry would like to sell Shabandar the fake created by the Major. Shabandar would like to own the companion piece. Harry would like to get rich and stay out of jail, so he plans to create a fake provenance to the target painting.
Harry travels to Texas to find the American rodeo woman PJ Pusnowski, whose grandfather, Sgt Pusnowski supposedly liberated the painting from the Germans who had swiped it earlier in the war. Shabandar paid 11 million pounds sterling for Morning, so Harry expects to get at least 12 million for Evening. He offers PJ a large chunk of change, and she decides to cooperate in crafting a false segment of the provenance of The Major's copy. That is, Evening had been sitting in Texas all those years.
While schmoozing Shabandar in London with PJ, Harry's weak position leads to his firing as well Shabandar's commandeering of PJ's attentions. Shabandar hires Zaidenweber as an alternate authenticator for the proposed Evening. Harry hopes to reverse his fortunes, but goodness, what a feckless fool!
Takagawa is in London, ostensibly, to sell certain television rights to Shabandar. PJ helps Shabandar deal with the Japanese contingent brought along by Takagawa. This will cement Shabandar's standing in Japanese television. PJ is swimming in this deal and having the time of her life. Harry is completely shut out of this, of course.
Harry's last asset is that he has The Major's fake Evening. Can he use this to reverse all his setbacks?
Resolution: Harry seems a dim bulb, but is he? Throughout the film, we see him face defeat after defeat, and a mounting sense of overall embarrassment. The film's title is a good clue to Harry's actual plans.
One line summary: Fine remake of the 1966 caper film.
Statistics:
Cinematography: 9/10 Good looking from beginning to end.
Sound: 8/10 The dialog was clear, the foley was good, and the incidental music amusing.
Acting: 9/10 Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, and Tom Courtenay were excellent. The rest of the cast did well.
Screenplay: 9/10 The pacing of the film was wonderful. I got several hearty laughs out of the film, and a dozen or so chuckles. Not once did I have to strain at suspending disbelief, and the ending came as a mild surprise.
Final Rating: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment