Gambit

Who is the cat and who is the mouse in a theft during which nothing is to be stolen? The opening part of the formulated plan takes up too much time, so it soon gets boring, because everything goes according to plan and so nothing exciting happens. The part when the real action starts happening is a different cup of tea. But even that could have been edited more, to pick up the pace. The eternally squabbling, charming duo is, of course, flawless. (08/01/2013)

Simply a great film. For the first twenty-five minutes, Gambit seems unremarkable, unoriginal... But then minute twenty-six comes and you find out that the whole heist you've just watched took place only in the mind of Harry Dean, the kind of arrogant, Michael Caine-faced con man who will spend the rest of the film convincing himself that a great plan and reality are two very different things. There. Now I dare you to say that the opening 25 minutes were unoriginal. Caine is as (almost) always flawless, Shirley MacLaine is an incredibly endearing person whose character you believe in every position (and she changes so many them!), and the brilliant Herbert Lom is probably needs to introduction - the actor enjoying himself simply played the millionaire enjoying himself with ease. The script, packed with wonderful dialogues, has plenty humor and does not bore for even a second, and I also very much liked two (I hope intentional) allusions to Casablanca (the sentence "I suppose this is the end of a beautiful friendship" at the end and the scene with "Bogart" Harry drinking beer at the market table). I immediately ranked Jarre's soundtrack, which I didn't know before, among his best pieces. As I said - Gambit is simply great. (13/04/2011)