The Heist

12.3.01

My life has been a long succession of retirements.

I retired from being a student to be a home health care worker, then on to receptionist, then student again. I left school to be a nanny and a "Kinko's co-worker," then on to medical clerk, adult literacy instructor, student again.

Finally I graduated.

Since then I've retired from both historic preservation and experimental science. At some point I even retired from amateur rowing.

With every change, I leap out into the unknown. I'm going on a hunch, heartbreak, a dream, a zeroed-out bank account.

In The Heist, Gene Hackman plays a man who is just about to take that leap. A seasoned executor of high-yield, low margin for error thievery, he claims that he never ties his shoes without a backup plan.

He has even planned for his retirement by building a sailboat on which he will spend his golden years, whenever circumstance forces him to move on.

As the movie begins he gets "burned," caught on camera during a job, and realizes that circumstances have turned against him. It's time to retire.

But in the movies, as in life, things are rarely simple. By a series of double dealings, his fence corners him into pulling off one last heist.

This last big job brings to the fore the full range of criminal aptitude, ambition, and deception contained within his little band of the trusted and the unwelcome. The story follows a thoroughly convoluted path through a robbery of astounding proportions, clockwork precision, and cliffhanger changes of fortune.

In the spaces between the plot twists, explosions, and well-oiled machinery of this film, however, writer and director David Mamet appears to have dozed off.

The clipped dialogue, replete with criminal lingo, comes across as heavy and overly theatrical, embarrassingly so at times. The actors go through the motions of performing Mamet's script, without conviction or commitment to his unique style.

Major plot lines fade out of the story as mini-intrigues swirl, eddy, and subside, dwarfed by the action and surprise developments.

The characters don't feel real enough to get you to the edge of your seat when it looks like the rug is being pulled out from under them, and the ending may even puzzle viewers who care little about the poor character development.

The Heist may entertain you or bore you, depending on what you look for in a movie. In the end, it is Hackman's assurance that he has a backup plan that prevents this movie from equaling Mamet's other great films.

The action is terrific. The robberies they stage do not fail to engage the viewer.

At no time, however, do you feel the free fall of potentially dismal failure and the true suspense inherent in that moment.

In my many changes of life trajectory, more often than not I spent at least a little bit of time in free fall, unsure of where I would land. In those moments my stomach lurched and my pulse raced. I had committed to going into the unknown, and believe me I felt the suspense.

Personal musings:

Wilderness: Dreams of living in the wild persist and change.

All grown up: At 12 I looked like I was 20, at 24 I looked 15.

Altruism: Can you ever repay the kindness of a stranger?

Photos in a box: A package from my brother turned my memories of childhood upside down.

Short story long: How to lengthen a narrative in a few easy steps.

Writing: Going the distance to find things to write about.

Neighbors: An amazing account of urban generosity.

Snacking: The angst of a healthy diet.

Thoughts on spiritual matters:

Subway preachers: Transcendence on the Red Line.

Thoughts in the Kingdom: How do you keep your mind in heaven and your heart in the world?

After September 11: Response to an attack on a mosque in Bridgeview, Ill., on September 12.