The latest DVD in our NetFlix queue, "The Good Thief," has been languishing for a bit, so it was time to give it its turn and send it back. I'm not a huge Nick Nolte fan, although I give him big kudos for not getting by on his looks--or his voice, for that matter. (If it hadn't been for the strong performances by Nolte/Sacchi/Paltrow in "Jefferson in Paris," I would have been throwing things at the screen for its dreckish screenplay and even more wretched grasp of history.)
Now, I never saw the original (French) version that "The Good Thief" covers; I'm only speaking to the relationship between money--as in great wads of cash--and morality that intertwine as confusingly (yet as prettily) as Celtic knot-work in the plot and subtext.
Apparently, it's "okay" to rob a casino because, hey, we all know that the odds are always stacked in favor of the house. And it's also "okay" to steal art from the Japanese who bought it (at inflated prices) because they're "cheating" by hoarding it in a private vault and flaunting impeccable fakes on the casino walls. Mostly, though, I think we're more or less set up to root for Bob because he's tilting at the windmill that is the soul-less underbelly of a money-obsessed culture (in this case the Riviera). I think, though, it's the honor among thieves is what suckers us in. The underage junkie-prostitute Anne understands Bob well enough to say, "He doesn't want money; he wants what money can't buy."
Hopefully, there's at least a little of that in all of us.
