With a loaded cast including three powerful leading actors spanning three different generations, “The Score” stacks up as a thrilling, heart-pounding modern heist film. With its twists and turns, suspense and high-tech schemes, this movie should be included on the caper film lover’s to-do list this summer.
Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton are the three money-hungry scoundrels in this film, joining forces to pull off their most risky scheme yet. Max (Brando) sets up the entire plan and arranges the partnering of the experienced Nick (De Niro) and the arrogant Jack (Norton), a plan going against the grain of Nick’s underground policy of working alone. The three design the blueprints of their scheme to steal a $30 million French royal scepter from a vault in the Montreal Customs House.
Angela Bassett, Nick’s female companion in the film, plays a minor role in “The Score.” Her short stage appearances emphasize her desire for Nick to retire from his thieving and settle down to begin a clean life with her. De Niro’s devotion, however, rests with following through with the scheme to help out Max, a long-time friend who turns out to be in serious trouble.
Each of the three leading actors have an ability to seize the audience and capture the scene. When any combination is together, dynamic acting sparks fly and the scene becomes so tantalizingly exciting that the unraveling of events is nothing short of unpredictable.
An undercurrent of tension exists between Nick and Jack throughout the film, beginning with Nick’s unwillingness to trust the young and cocky Jack. As the movie unfolds, the artificial trust between the two becomes more fragile and crucial as the minutes tick by. Each is lying at the mercy of the other in the final scenes of the movie – with De Niro suspended by expensive gadgets and Norton holding fast to his cover as a janitor with cerebral palsy.
Brando smoothly portrays the financial partner for Norton and De Niro. The role was tailored to this aging actor, with his antics and unceasing ability to get what he wants. By his hefty size alone, Brando is the center of his scenes. Combining his relentless habit of poking fun at everyone and moving the actors around as if pawns, Brando continues to be a crowd favorite.
Director Frank Oz keeps the audience involved with the heist by making the cutting-edge technology used by the thieves understandable. The viewers are clued into the paramount importance of accuracy, timing and agility.
Only the most experienced connoisseurs of crime thrillers will keep a keen eye on the right moves and conflicts in this film, and these members of the audience will most likely be able to predict the final scene of the flick. But that doesn’t matter in “The Score” – the actors put on such a show that, predictable or not, this is a film one won’t want to miss.
