Director: Frank Oz
Date: 7 December 2017
jamesintexas rating: **
I waited sixteen years to see this 2001 film. Here's the score:
Robert De Niro wins, I guess, but this tepid film signals a decline from his heist masterpiece Heat, and it sure isn't Ronin or Meet The Parents, both quite fun.
Edward Norton finishes second, but he's redoing his Primal Fear ticks and head bobs, and is more distracting than anything else.
The always excellent Angela Bassett finishes third in an underwritten character that is far beneath her talent.
Legend Marlon Brandon finishes fourth in a strange, sad final performance that just seems an ignominious end to such a stellar career.
I think that the film earns points for me because of the following:
1. It is filmed mostly in Quebec, and the Canadian streets, buildings, and jazz clubs are charming.
2. The jazz is quite wonderful, and Howard Shore, the great Howard Shore, does some very memorable, soulful work with the soundtrack.
3. There is a kind of workman-like dullness to the film that is nice. Its stakes are not that high; its characters, not that hyperbolic; its MacGuffin, a French royal scepter which no meaning outside of its cash value.
4. Robert De Niro, for the most part, does not seem to be in much of a hurry as the world's most relaxed and pretty successful Canadian Jazz Club owner. Neither is the film. I think the opening scene encapsulates the whole film: there is a break-in without much panache or artistry; there are elements that we think are going to pay off big, and then they kind of don't; there is a lot of fading out of shots of De Niro traveling and traveling. And then it is over.
5. There is a pretty cool extended shot of a torch cutting into a safe if you're into that kind of thing (maybe appealing for safecrackers?).
6. I'm never not interested in Marlon Brando, even just walking across a room or sitting in a bizarre basement pool room pontificating.
I do not mean to be chippy with this film, but I just think its ending feels unearned. But more important than that, The Score is joyless and not much fun or funny. That's okay, and it passed two hours of my team, but it isn't enjoyable.
