The recipe for success, take a well known novel by author Jim Thompson, a work which embodies the core ingredients of pulp fiction but which has the broad strokes of an epic greek tragedy, pull in Martin Scorsese (who decides to produce well handing over the directing privileges to Stephen Frears, who had just finished directing the genius Dangerous Liaisons), and an ensemble powerhouse cast of Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening, stir it all together and dish up some movie magic.
Anjelica Huston plays Lilly Dillon, a veteran con-man who works for a book maker named Bobo Justus and travels the country manipulating horse race track odds, on her way to California for the man. Lilly has a son, Roy (John Cusack), who she hasn't seen for many years, who has also entered his mother's profession and who is a down on his luck after being critically injured during a con. Roy has a girlfriend, Myra Langtry (Annette Bening), who unbeknownst to him is also a con-artist. The three are brought together, and as is to be expected from professional liars, mistrust and hidden agendas run rampant as each has a difference of opinion as regards the other, and the urge and need to grift takes hold.
It's a tight plot, rich in character, in a world of unsavory characters who we all come to really like, business is business after all, and people are people (flawed). Anjelica Huston is Hollywood royalty, I like this term, it's real and speaks to the lineage and heritage she embodies as a member of the Huston clan, and as a damn fine actress. Whether she's playing The Grand High Witch, Morticia Adams or Lilly Dillon, her beauty, is statuesque, stark, formidable and a powerful presence in the history of cinema. The character of Lily Dillon loathsomely yet likeably flawed and layered, complex and sexy, patient, and delivered with the panache of a true Hollywood great contrasted against the reckless, theatrical and wild energy of the "newbie" female grifter that is Myra (as brought to life by Annette Bening).
What a breakthrough performance for Annette Bening, her fourth movie role (having previously appeared briefly in Postcards from the Edge, Starring in Valmont, and also acting in the classic John Candy comedy The Great Outdoors), and then exploding into movie goers consciousness in this film, a balls to the walls tour de force of a performance, conning the audience, unable to get our minds around this complex and intrigueing sex bomb. It's like she was given a role and given free range to just artfully play, to breathe not just life but fire into this character.
John Cusack as Roy is also brilliant as the yong to the ying and yang of Myra and Lilly - it would ultimately be the two ladies whose larger than life performances would steer the movie into awards territory, but that is essentially the very purpose of his character. Roy is an operator, a master and appreciator of the small con contrasting against Lilly's career in organized crime and Myra's con-productions, and this is where the fireworks live in the movie, because the three are all in the same game but so different in outlooks and varied moral ceilings, wrapped up in a game of deception that dares you to guess where you are going to land up - JUST BRILLIANT!!!
The movie would go on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay - all well deserved nominations. The Grifters is the second movie watched from the 63rd Academy Awards, and the 74th Oscar movie watched as part of this blog's mission.
nuff said...
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