Thief of Hearts

This movie was bitterly panned upon its release, and I see a number of IMDB's reviewers agree with the original critics. I don't get it, except that this movie does such a good idea of taking you inside Stephen Bauer's character and what he is doing is so creepy that people react viscerally to him instead of the movie. The movie is engrossing, brilliantly photographed and well-paced. The camera angles and the chemistry between Bauer and Williams are reminiscent of what Hitchcock tried to do in Vertigo, but much less forced and contrived. All these characters behave in character. I really consider this one of the best romantic thrillers of all time. Yes, it is erotic. Why is that a bad thing? 10/10.

What's not to love? Hot leading man, amazing San Francisco locale and a Faltermyer/Moroder soundtrack including the incomparable Melissa Manchester. The cast is great. Steven Bauer and Barbara Williams have great chemistry together. And the appearance of David Caruso early in his career is a bit of a surprise, too. A fun fantasy escape!

Though I do like this film, I found the concept immensely disturbing. Being a private person (you don't see my NAME on this, do you?), I found the idea that anyone could so completely invade a life absolutely terrifying. In spite of a few holes, the film works, chiefly because the characters enmesh the audience in their feelings. Steven Bauer is incredibly underrated as an actor and, while I have seen stronger performances from him, he's very good as the enamoured thief in search of a way out and Barbara Williams is credible as the neglected wife enchanted by the mystery man. Let's not leave out John Getz, another unexplainably underrated performer, as the self-absorbed husband. If you can ignore the flashy 80s style, the film is a fascinating study of obsession. Warning: it definitely deserves its R rating for unnecessary full nudity.

The film tells a story of a burglar who falls in love with one of his victims whilst doing her house one night. After stealing her portrait and personal memoires, he proceeds to "learn" more and more about the victim until he decides to come into personal contact. Passing himself off as a Company Director, he slowly seduces the victim and this is facilitated by her failing marriage. Inevitably, events catch up with the thief as his partner in crime goes to desperate measures to eliminate this side-distraction. I enjoyed this movie for a number of reasons but most of all, I thought it had a fantastic eighties soundtrack throughout. The story itself is not wonderfully exciting, but the fantasy of a burglar falling for one of his victims and using his psychological advantage to seduce her is quite interesting. A sense of compassion is felt for the central character as he strives to live a fantasy of his own making that slowly starts to disintegrate due to his own dark life. John Caruso puts in a disturbing and powerful performance as the drugged-crazed partner who takes matters into his own hands.

I saw this film after visiting San Francisco and the movie captures it's vitality completely. For me Frisco is the best city on earth and I was captured from the start. OK so the plot was unique at the time, but I thought the characters were well cast and believable. Barbara Williams stole it with her beauty, innocence and naivety. For me the passionate love scenes backed up with the Harold Faltermeyer soundtrack was top drawer. I waited 5 weeks for the soundtrack (Germany) and it was well worth the wait. I still play it today.For all these reasons I still tell people this is my favourite film so far.