Blood & Wine

Another twist on the heist gone wrong movie. Alex (Nicholson) and Victor (Caine) plan to rob jewels from a house safe. The robbery goes off fine but Alex's wife leaves him and flees the abusive relationship with her son Jason (Dorff) accidentally taking the jewels. Alex and Victor give chase leading to a double-crossing finale of greed and deception.

This is not what it appears - to compare it to the many "heist gone wrong" movies around now is quite unfair. Rather, this is a character driven piece where the diamonds become the signpost to the characters' true form rather than the reason d'eitre for the whole film. Nicholson plays the main character who seems OK on the surface but is paranoid, greedy, abusive and frustrated underneath. Caine is more sleazy and obviously violent, while Lopez, Dorff and Davis all play supposed innocents sucked into the crime.

However the truth is that the film reveals the greed inside each of them, only Judy Davis as Nicholson's wife comes off as anyway sympathetic, but even she has a drinking problem. Lopez and Dorff display their greed gradually and their characters develop during the film to be as unpleasant as Nicholson. All the main performances are strong and the monstrous sides of their nature are easily believable. Any redemptions are tarnished with lingering greed, greed turns to suspicion turns to deception turns to murder. Human nature is an ugly thing and this element of it is played out at every level here.

As a crime thriller it doesn't work as well as it could have - it is often treated as a plot driver rather than the plot itself. However the characters and performances are all strong and it is this that drives the film. Depending on whether you want a crime thriller or a character piece with big names, you'll either be disappointed or pleasantly surprised.

Michael Caine gives one of his greatest performances, and that really is saying something. How many times have you seen someone overshadow CJck Nicholson? Well it happens here. Caine's character is at times pathetic, at others funny, and at others deeply nasty, and always believable.

Jennifer Lopez looks astonishing in this but her character is a cypher. The script is so-so, as is the direction, but it is worth watching once for the Caine masterclass.

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.

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 is typically brilliant. Judy Davis is positively compelling. Michael Caine does what he does when given a great script: exceptional work. Stephen Dorff is a great young actor, and Jennifer Lopez is stunningly beautiful, if at times out of her league here.

The script is good, the direction is excellent, and the film, in total, is a solid 8.5 on the 10 scale. Those who complain that the film is too violent shouldn't watch movies about crime. Crime is typically violent. (Despite the way it's depicted in most films.)

See this movie. Ignore the idiots.