The Score
released 2001
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“The Score” is an American, action, heist film produced by Gary Foster, Dieter Meyer, Roland Pellegrino, Adam Platnik, Lee Rich and Bernard `Bernie´ Williams. It was directed by Frank Oz and written by Daniel E. Taylor, Kario salem, Lem Dobbs and Scott Marshall Smith. It stars Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Angela Bassett, Gary Farmer, Paul Soles, Jamie Harrold, Serge Houde, Jean-Rene Ouellet, Martin Drainville, Claude Despins, Richard Waugh, Mark Camacho, Marie-Josee Colburn, Cassandra Wilson, Eric Hoziel, Bobby Brown, Mose Allison, Thinh Truong Nguyen, Carlo Essagian, Christian Tessier and many more.

The Score IMdb webpage

“The Score” is the story of a semi retired thief named Nick, played by Robert De Niro. Nick is a cautious man, who has carved out a comfortable life for himself in spite of his illegal profession. He does not attract attention to himself and lives in the Old Port in Montreal, Canada. He enjoys spending his evenings at his Jazz Club/ restaurant and does not drive around in the newest, most expensive cars nor does he wear a lot of bling bling or seek the camera for fame. He is not a thrill seeker and he avoids violence and unnecessary danger. In short, he is a humble thief which I imagine is not so common in the world of crime, at least the way Hollywood portrays that life. His life is upended when the character of Max, played by Marlon Brandon, stops by for a visit and a favor disguised as a job proposition. Along with the job is a request that an unknown man named Brian/ Jack, played by Edward Norton, must be part of the job. This is a complete change with how Nick usually does his business and adds a huge amount of risk into what should be a relatively doable job without any serious glitch. Thanks to Brian and his shifty, clearly criminal minded personality Nick has probably finds himself in a risky situation that involves betrayal and the possible loss of his quiet life and freedom.

“The Score” is a heist film with characters that do not seek thrills, action or danger. They are focused and understand the importance of keeping a low profile in their line of work. I loved the story setting in the Old Port of Montreal, Canada. A nice place to spend evenings and enjoy a good meal, fun bars, tourist shops. It is also a place where local artist sell their art. Nick´s jazz joint looks like a great place to hang out and is a very good reflection of his state of mind. I loved the way the characters avoided violence, crude behavior and seemed to have reached a place of respect with each other over the years, with the exception of Brian. Most of these types of heist films have impulsive characters who take unnecessary risks and terrible scripts. The scenes of violence and conflicts are contrived with choreographed violence scenes. This film has no such faults.

One thing I really liked about this film was how the main character Nick was so much of a mystery to us, the viewer. In so many of these films we, the audience, are given a quick, cookie cutter background that is intended to like the thief in spite of the fact that they are criminals. These background scenes in these heist films or flashback scenes are intended to get us, the viewer, to ignore what the main character is. He or she is basically a criminal stealing property that is not theirs. This film does no such thing. Nick is a career criminal who might or might not have a background that explains his life choices. He might or might not have some kind of trauma that catapulted him into the criminal lifestyle but then again he might not. We really don`t know and that is a nice touch. To have a criminal who is not enthralled by violence, betrayal without the trauma background narrative is a nice and refreshing touch.

The heist itself was also well done. The criminals put a lot of time and thought into their plan. This is basically a necessity in these films. Ultimately, we, the viewer want to see how they did it. We want to see the whole process. Planting Brian in the target location was brilliant, He did such a good acting job anybody would have fallen for it. I have to add that Brian´s taking advantage of the niceness of his boss was kind of a hard watch. It´s not an easy watch to see bad things happen to good people.

Otherwise, this is a dated film but it´s a great watch. So, check it out.

John Ink2Quill

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