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The Grifters

1990

Stephen Frears

Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening, John Cusack, Pat Hingle ...

6.6

4,982

Film noir. Thriller. Drama. Mystery When con artist Roy Dillon (John Cusack) is visited by his Mother, Lilly (Anjelica Huston), who is also a con artist, she sends Roy off to the hospital because of a blow to the gut he suffered while working the grift. Roy's girlfriend, Myra (Annette Bening), the third con artist, comes to visit Roy, and we discover that Lilly and Myra don't get along. After he is released from the hospital, Roy and Myra go on a little trip, where he is ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"[It] exudes the film noir spirit from its very pores (...) One of the strengths of 'The Grifters' is how everything adds up, and it all points toward the conclusion of the film (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"Taut, tough and funny (...) Frears has made a gritty, hard-boiled melodrama that is also an examination of the genre"	POS
United States	Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times	"It is a perfect piece of work, mature and composed"	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"Donald Westlake's excellent screenplay does some justice to the starkness of Jim Thompson's novel; and Frears' direction never fails to grab the attention"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"While the filmmakers manage to keep things interesting much of the time, the self-conscious piety that Frears lavishes on this material places it in an uncertain netherworld that prevents it from ever becoming fully convincing"	NEU

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