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.

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.

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.

"Five Easy Pieces" is closed to one of the best movies ever made. I never finished watching "The King of Marvin Gardens" (It got too ponderous and uninteresting)and "Blood and Wine" is no improvement. Rafelson was much better off when he didn't get influenced from other directors and just stuck to what he did best like in F.E.P., which was about genuine characters facing genuine problems.

The characters in Blood and Wine are not realistic. They're a cliche. They weren't interesting enough to be sympathied with, even Stephen Dorff, who is supposed to be portrayed as the film's hero. Charmless, humorless, and overall bleak movie lacking any style or substance.

Without doubt this film has great performances from Caine, Nicholson and Davis (though hers' is a short role in comparison). The violence is uncalled for. The script has some great lines (e.g., Caine's lines on burial vs cremation) but the script does not hold you for long. If Rafelson wanted to make a trilogy progressing from son to brother to father--why choose a stepfather role for the "father"? Is there no difference for Rafelson? There are times when the "family" within the film son, mother and stepfather emerges as an interesting triangle but for some reason Rafelson does not invest time on this aspect except for a few flashes--(e.g., mother to son "I would have done the same" or Nicholson protecting his stepson's friend from brutality or Nicholson covering Davis' with blankets as she sleeps). Had he delved more into relationships, this film could have been a wonderful modern day Hamlet-like tragedy.