The Score

views updated

The Score ★★½ 2001 (R)

Slowstarting crime comedy with De Niro as a semi-retired thief, living a quiet life running a Montreal jazz club, until his fence (Brando) and a wannabe theif (Norton) talk him into pulling another job in Montreal's customs house. Bassett is DeNiro's squeeze (good taste there) who wants him out of the life. Painstaking but realistic in its portrayal of the preparation and events leading to the heist, but when things finally get going, it crackles with tense “will-they-get-caught” moments and doublecrosses aplenty. De Niro is solid, as always, but he seems like he may be getting too old for this stuff. Norton gets most of the screen time, and uses it well. Brando is surprisingly understated in an amusing way. 124m/C VHS, DVD . US Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Angela Bassett, Gary Farmer, Paul Soles, Jamie Harrold; D: Frank Oz; W: Kario Salem, Scott Marshall Smith, Lem Dobbs; C: Rob Hahn; M: Howard Shore.

More From encyclopedia.com