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Grifters, The
Miramax Films


6.8

based on 18 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R

Starring Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening, Stephen Tobolowsky, Michael Laskin, Eddie Jones, J.T. Walsh, and Henry Jones

When small-time cheat Roy Dillon (Cusack) winds up in the hospital following an unsuccessful scam, it sets up a confrontation between his estranged mother Lilly (Huston) and sexy girlfriend Myra (Bening). Both Lilly and Myra are ruthless confidence artists playing the con game in a league far above Roy ... and always looking for their next victim. The question soon becomes who's conning who as Roy finds himself caught in a complicated web of passion and mistrust. (Miramax)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Donald E. Westlake Jim Thompson (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Stephen Frears
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 30, 1998 Video: June 5, 1991 Theatrical: December 5, 1990
RUNNING TIME:	119 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

The film picked up four 1991 Academy Award Nominations in the categories of Best Actress (Huston), Best Supporting Actress (Bening), Best Director (Frears), and Best Writing - Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Westlake). Huston also was nominated for a 1991 Golden Globe for Best Actress.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The performances are all insidiously powerful.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie is pulp, yet it attains a surprising emotional power-especially when Anjelica Huston's Lilly, a survivor who'll do whatever it takes to master her surroundings, is on-screen.

100

San Francisco Chronicle John Stone

[Frears] has not only captured the bleak qualities of the old film noir melodramas but supplied an undercurrent that is as sly as it is unsettling. [25 Jan 1991]

100

The New York Times Vincent Canby

The Grifters moves with swift unsentimental resolve toward a last act as bleak as any in recent American screen literature. In a less skillful work, it would be a downer. The Grifters is so good that one leaves the theater on a spellbound high. [5 Dec 1990]

100

The New Yorker Pauline Kael

Huston's power as Lilly is astounding... She bites right through the film-noir pulp; the [climactic] scene is paralyzing, and it won't go away.

100

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

Diamond-hard and mesmerizing… Bening and Cusack are perfection at what they are doing, she twinkly as any rhinestone, he dangerously passive; it's hardly their fault that Huston is the motor of the piece and so ferociously seductive that one cannot look away from her. [5 Dec 1990]

100

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon

Mr. Frears is as good with the small touches as he is with the big ones – and that means they're great. [24 Jan 1991, p.A8(E)]

Washington Post Desson Thomson

If Frears and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake (who scripted "The Stepfather") are light on substance, they're satisfyingly heavy on nuance. Grifters may not blow you away afterward but it keeps your attention riveted during.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Indeed, as the film unreels to its extraordinary climax - a scene that will make your skin crawl - Frears has the larger target right in his sights and, bang, pulls the thematic trigger, taking no prisoners.

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

Huston gives one of her very best performances as a strong lady who can con almost everyone but herself. Her manner on the screen in this picture and in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors'' marks Huston as the one contemporary actress who comes closest to having the power of classic female dramatic stars of years past. [25 Jan 1991]

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Westlake's screenplay has the right combination of vivid characters, mordant wit and avaricious savagery which distinguishes the best noir.

Washington Post Hal Hinson

[Huston] brings a vital conviction to her scenes; they're scorchingly immediate, and her ability to get in sync with what Lily's feeling is what gives the movie weight. She may be the best we have.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's a picture marked by competence, not the boiling-over intensity that Frears and Thompson fans have anticipated. [30 Nov 1990]

Time Richard Corliss

Best to savor The Grifters for its handsome design -- the picture looks as clean as a Hockney landscape -- and its juicy performances. [11 Feb 1991]

USA Today Mike Clark

More than anything, The Grifters isn't dramatically shot; black-and-white would have made a huge difference. [5 Dec 1990]

Empire Adrienne Scott

The simmering implication of incestuous emotions between Lili and Roy, leading to the shocking denouement, is badly underdeveloped and mishandled, leaving a lingering sense of anti-climax.

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

A curiously uneven movie.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

While the filmmakers manage to keep things interesting (sexy, kinky, and ambiguous) 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, even as a stylistic exercise.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gabor A. gave it a 6:
There are a lot of movies about con artists. More importantly, there are a lot of movies about con artists better than this one.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
The problem with being amoral is that one cannot refer to an amoral compass. They are perenially off course & trying to cover their tracks. And if that sounds vague, you can bet this film will explain it. It's about unpleasant people, but there is pleasure in watching them interact from a safe distance (do not touch the glass. do not approach the glass).

Yoon Min C. gave it a 6:
Well written but mechanical exercise in noirishness. Annette Bening is irritating as usual , Cusack's role is unconvincing and flabby. Only Huston sizzles but not enough to cook this dead fish of a movie.

Eloi P. gave it a 10:
Annette Bening was amazing in this. And the ending is a doozy... a must see!

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Grifters, The Miramax Films

Grifters, The
Miramax Films