The Grifters is a 90's noir piece about Roy Dillon and his two women, his mother and his girlfriend. All three are grifters, all play their angles and its a lot darker than the modern gentleman's fairy tale con men seen in the Ocean movies and such.
I wish I could say I was intrigued, but it felt just felt like the movie tried to be tense and smart while mostly being paranoid. I enjoyed Annette Bening as 'Roy's girlfriend 'Myra', but I never felt like Anjelica Huston got her character as his mother down. John Cusack as 'Roy' isn't his finest hour as I see it, but many claim it to be one of his best roles ever. Overall the acting is good, but the attempted noir have scripted them into a wannabe state.
I feel the potential in the movie, but only Bening got to take on enough different states of mind to build her character. Felt like Cusack and Huston was a lot more limited by the amount they got to work with. Both Bening and Huston got Oscar nominated, Annette in the 'Supporting Actress' category and Anjelica in the 'Leading Actress' category.
There's a couple of holes in the overall plot, which I can't mention of spoilerish reasons. There's also some parts of the story they seem to have forgot. There's actually an inner circle con I still have no idea how worked even after watching the entire movie. That kind of ruins a lot, as there wasn't that many complicated scams going on. There's also a couple of Captain Obvious moments. Overall all these small things ruin a movie with potential for me.
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