★★★☆☆
12 December 2014
This article is a review of AMERICAN HEIST.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
|
“No one goes for the vaults, that’s just in the movies,” James Kelly (Hayden Christensen)
Actor Hayden Christensen turning up on the screen has a random quality (it has been four years since TAKERS and six since JUMPER). Inconsistently headlining, after the STAR WARS prequels might have made him a superstar as Anakin Skywalker, is perhaps a result of their dire quality, as well as his unfortunately charismaless and wooden performing modus operandi. And that sullen, mumbled turn is present here in a crime thriller echoing better movies.
What's going for AMERICAN HEIST is that it haphazardly mashes genre narratives together, opts for an arthouse denouement, and brings in the always watchable Adrien Brody.
Actor Hayden Christensen turning up on the screen has a random quality (it has been four years since TAKERS and six since JUMPER). Inconsistently headlining, after the STAR WARS prequels might have made him a superstar as Anakin Skywalker, is perhaps a result of their dire quality, as well as his unfortunately charismaless and wooden performing modus operandi. And that sullen, mumbled turn is present here in a crime thriller echoing better movies.
What's going for AMERICAN HEIST is that it haphazardly mashes genre narratives together, opts for an arthouse denouement, and brings in the always watchable Adrien Brody.
Shadow boxing in a prison cell, Frankie (Brody) is on the verge of being paroled. An armed robbery, involving accidental death, has meant a decade behind bars. Exaggerated braggadocio masks a broken spirit. Movingly he tells younger brother James (Christensen), "They took my swagger." Prison kinda-mates, Ray (Tory Kittles) and Sugar (Akon), call in a marker. “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.” That CARLITO'S WAY line is now cliché, so much so THE SOPRANOES regularly re-quoted. AMERICAN HEIST goes for the hackneyed theme of past criminality preventing redemption.
Ray and Sugar require James to be their getaway driver. Frankie sold out his sibling to be protected from the brutalities of incarceration. ON THE WATERFRONT springs to mind, as do too many other flicks. Frankie continues to be negligent in protecting his family; raising further bitterness from James at having to do time for the same, earlier robbery gone wrong.
Mechanic by trade, old flame Emily (Jordana Brewster – having even less to do than in the FAST & FURIOUS franchise) walks into his place of employment. Car trouble rekindles unextinguished ardour. Romantic leverage can then be used against James to help rob a bank. Some kind of political commentary is artlessly wedged into the narrative – James needs an unforthcoming loan to help start his own garage; and Ray argues for the danger such financial institutions are to society. An Iraq veteran, post-service abandonment by the authorities is perhaps hinted at (but more as a sign of his skillset).
HEAT-mode combat carnage is the shift in tonal gear. Cars are blown up around the city to distract the cops, as the heavily armed foursome wreak havoc in a bank. Emily so happens to be a police dispatcher – her moral conundrum at aiding her lover slightly elevates her part. Director Michael Mann-esque melee gives way to the O.T.T. of Michael Bay: A helicopter is meticulously shot out of the sky.
MEAN STREETS-lite, but still clips along at a brisk pace. Hubristic title though.