Blood & Wine

In Blood and Wine, Jack Nicholson plays the likable antihero he plays so well. He's married to Judy Davis, but is having an affair with Jennifer Lopez, and although he seems like a respectable wine merchant on the surface, he's actually planning to steal a diamond necklace from one of his clients, with the help of his partner Michael Caine. But, since it's Jack Nicholson, we forgive him.

Blood and Wine isn't your typical heist movie, because there are more elements to the plot than just the robbery. There are family tensions, a love triangle, and character development, which helps make this a highly enjoyable movie to watch. When you care about the characters, you care about the movie. The performances are very good, and Alison Cross's and Nick Villiers's script is pretty riveting.

So often in films, the actors who play children don't even think to adopt the mannerisms and inflections of the actors who are playing their parents. In real life, you can see an enormous amount of similarities through the generations, from gait to speech pattern to the frequency and timing of brow raises, to the tiniest of facial expressions. Stephen Dorff, while playing Jack Nicholson's stepson, took the time to do his homework. When he speaks, it's clear he grew up in an environment where Jack's mannerisms were influential. He's not giving a Jack Nicholson impression, though, and that subtle distinction makes all the difference in the world.

Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine are so good in this movie. The temptation to chew up the scenery must have been overwhelming, but neither did. Neither grandstanded, and each played their vastly unappealing characters right down to the last detail.

Caine plays an aging and ill thief looking for that last big score on which he can retire. Nicholson plays a middle-class wine distributor locked into an unhappy marriage, failing business, and a young girlfriend to support. They unite to rob one of Nicholson's clients, an act they feel will solve all of their problems. Of course it doesn't and everything that can go wrong, does. And then things begin to turn ugly.

Dark, noirish, this is not a feel-good caper flick. It's definitely not "The Sting". What it is is well acted, directed, and filmed. Highly recommended, I'm just puzzled why it was overlooked at the Academy Awards.

BLOOD & WINE (1996) *** Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Judy Davis, Harold Perrineau. Fine devious neo noir and serpentine twists along the way with slick wine salesman Nicholson partnering with chronic, oily Caine (gleefully enjoying his scumbag role) for a get rich quick diamond necklace heist that only gets botched (natch) when his stepson Dorff starts to add up the heinous acts they've committed. Nicholson's attack on Caine is scarily funny. Directed by long-time Jack Packer, Bob Rafelson.

In Miami, Alex Gates (Jack Nicholson) is a small trader of wines, married with Suzanne (Judy Davies). He does not have a good relationship with his wife and his stepson, Jason (Stephen Dorff). Alex has a Cuban mistress, Gabriela (Jennifer Lopez). One day, he decides to steal a jewel from a rich client, in the house where Gabriela works as a nanny. Alex associates to the tuberculous small-time crook Victor Spansky (Michael Caine). A series of mistakes jeopardize the heist and the selling of the necklace. This amoral and noir movie has a magnificent cast. However, something does not work well, being just an average movie about greed. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Sangue e Vinho" ("Blood and Wine")

The team of Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson made two of the strongest movies of the 1970s, 'Five Easy Pieces' and 'The King Of Marvin Gardens'. It would be unrealistic to hope that 'Blood And Wine' would be as memorable as those two, and of course it isn't. But it is an excellent piece of modern film noir, one of the most underrated Hollywood movies of recent years, and the best thing Rafelson has made since the early 1980s. Nicholson is perfectly cast as a dissatisfied and greedy wine merchant who hatches a plot to steal a client's valuable necklace. He is assisted by a slimy British crook (a superb turn from Michael Caine in his best acting role in years) and his sexy young girlfriend (Jennifer Lopez, who is surprisingly good). Things get very complicated very quickly when their plan goes belly up, and Nicholson's estranged wife (Judy Davis) and his stepson (Steven Dorff) get into the picture. This is a well acted, interesting and unpredictable thriller with some real depth among the plot twists. I thoroughly enjoyed it.