THE FORGER
DIRECTOR: Philip Martin
CAST: John Travolta, Christopher Plummer, Tye Sheridan, Abigail Spencer, Jennifer Ehle, Marcus Thomas, Anson Mount
CLASSIFICATION: 16 L
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes
RATING: **
JOHN TRAVOLTA (pictured) plays skeevy forger Raymond Cutter who for some reason insists on getting out of jail early. To the point where he gets badly into debt with a gangster boss in order to achieve his goal.
Said boss, Tommy Keegan (Mount), insists that Ray pull off one last forgery job, setting him up to handle an art heist which forces him to ask his own father, old-fashioned conman Joseph Cutter (Plummer), for help.
Director Philip Martin and DoP John Bailey have meticulously recreated the blue- collar Boston, New York feel we have come to expect from films because of The Town, Boondock Saints, and The Heat (this week’s other release Infinitely Polar Bear was also shot in the same area).
Ray used to move between this hidden world of grifters and thieves and the more rarified art world – or at least it is hinted that he used to, and it would have been interesting to see this contrast. Also, you never really buy into the idea that Ray is supposed to be this hotshot forger.
Lurking in the background are the police who take an interest in Ray to add danger to the otherwise predictable plot.
The planning and eventual heist has an unglamorous, very workman-like feel to it, helped along by the background scenery and houses stuck in their ’80s furnishings. The film also tries to foreground characterisation and use the heist as the background to the story of the relationship between the three generations of Cutter men.
But, the presentation of all the characters doesn’t quite follow the same verisimilitude as presentation of imagery. While Travolta and Plummer try to add nuance to their roles of tough yet vulnerable dad Ray and stoic, if slightly funny because of the eternal cussing, grandpa Joseph, teenager Tye Sheridan doesn’t fare as well as Will Cutter.
Ray has got out of jail early because his son is ill and he tries to re-establish their broken relationship, but the very quick move from sullen teen to interested and engaged would-be thief is not believable.
Also, considering this is supposed to be a crime drama about a heist, there is nary a thrill or too much drama to be found. The pace is glacial and because there are so many subplots starting and going nowhere, the focus is scattered.
The idea is actually interesting – a dysfunctional family trying to get their act together while planning some illegality and teaching the youngster about Impressionist art – but the half-baked execution falls short.
If you liked Takers, you might like this.