Never having seen the original "Bob le Flambeur" I can't compare it to this remake. On its own, this one isn't bad as remakes go. It's juiced up, confusing, and noisy but it's engaging too.

The first thing one notices is that Nick Nolte as Bob is pretty good. He's older now and a little puffy. His voice is a barely interpretable hoarse whispery croak. If he used to stride a little much, he now shambles. It fits the part of a recovering junky who lives a squirming kind of life among the seedier folk of the French Riviera. And his performance is better than it sometimes has been. Watch him shiver in the back seat of a speeding convertible when he begins his withdrawal.

The second most noticeable thing is Nutsa Kukhianidze as Anne. We first meet her when she's in her underwear and she's thoroughly unforgettable. First of all, she has this slinky French walk, her narrow shoulders held back, her hips a little forward, her steps tiny, and her slender arms and dainty hands swinging gracefully. She has the figure of a gazelle, a little sinew here, a little avoirdupois where it counts. When she smiles her lips curl in on themselves like Dana Delaney's. She has a boyish haircut, a fluffy Medieval warrior's helmet. (There's undoubtedly a name for this genre, a French name, but I have no idea what it is.) Her slightly crossed eyes have pronounced epicanthic folds suggesting that if you shook her family tree a Khalka Mongol might fall out. What I'm trying to say is that she's tiny and scrumptious.

The direction is functional. Bodies are efficiently moved about. I missed the first twenty minutes and found the story confusing because that's probably where all the planning for this complicated robbery took place. Anyway, there are no directorial fireworks, except that on occasion a freeze of a fraction of a second is appended to a shot before the cut is made. The device calls attention to itself and adds nothing to the film. It's even used during fast-paced scenes.

There's a good deal of slightly bent humor in the script and some good lines of dialog. The twins who are part of the gang simultaneously say, "Two heads are better than one," and they sleep in twin beds.

In another scene, Ralph Feinnes is a fence for stolen art who has been ripped off. He and his burly henchman corner Nolte and Nutsa. Feinnes is enraged that Nolte has given him a fake and claimed it was a genuine Picasso. The dialog is something like this. Nolte: "Sure it's a fake but it's a very good fake. It was painted by Chester C. Smith, a great artist." Feinnes: "Well, Kandinsky here (his henchman with the knife) is going to give you a lesson, and what I'm going to do to BOTH your faces will definitely be CUBISTIC."

I wonder how closely this remake follows the original, because some of its elements have been used elsewhere to comic effect. The burrowing upward from the underground tunnel goes awry and a gas pipe blows up, so the plan seems to fail. Meanwhile, Nolte and Nutsa are upstairs in the casino supposedly distracting the police while gambling. The upstairs feint makes the fortune, while the original plan collapses in a farcical scene. I'm thinking of "Big Deal on Madonna Street" and Woody Allen's "Small Time Crooks." In the end everyone is happy except for the owners of the Casino. Oh, and one bad guy who winds up dead.

It's enjoyable in its own slight way.

The Good Thief is written and directed by Neil Jordan. A remake of French film Bob le flambeur, it stars Nick Nolte, Emir Kusturica, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Tcheky Karyo and Said Taghmaoui. Music is scored by Elliot Goldenthal and cinematography by Chris Menges.

Bob Montagnet (Nolte) is slipping further down the ladder of hope, addicted to drugs and gambling he allows himself a shot at glory by taking part in one last intricate heist....

The heist at the heart of The Good Thief is pretty much playing second fiddle to the characters involved with said heist on each side of the law. This is primarily about conversations and characters defined by their actions, there's no shoot-outs and screeching of car tyres as the Gendarmerie pursue edgy criminals. It's sedately paced and neatly stitched together, even if it's too smooth for its own good at times. A trait of Jordan's is to focus on a main character with issues and have the audience wondering how it is going to pan out. Here Jordan gets maximum mileage out of this premise whilst directing Nolte to a terrific and gripping performance.

Cast around Nolte are mostly splendid, though young Kukhianidze is a bit overwhelmed by the quality around her. Chris Menges photography is beautiful, affecting golden hues for character moments of hope, cold tones for harsher aspects of the story. There's a rich cosmopolitan flavour to the production, both with the French setting and cast list, while the patience of the viewer is rewarded with a well constructed last half hour as the heist comes into play and one or two tricksy reveals come tumbling out of the card deck.

It's about brain over brawn in this one, hardly a masterpiece of the crime drama sphere, but Nolte and that last third make it well worth the time of the discerning cinephile. 7/10

'The Good Thief' is the best film Neil Jordan did since 'Mona Lisa' almost two decades ago. It is a classical and well written robbery story, complex enough to catch the interest, simple enough for the spectator to follow and enjoy, and with the special twist at the end that makes a good script. The main character fits Nick Nolte like life, I can imagine only Humphrey Bogart doing better in this role. There are a few other memorable characters, with the Georgian (from the other Georgia) Nutza Kukhianidze promising to become soon a star if she has enough luck to continue to work with good directors and scripts. The cinematography has a special quality, with final stills after each shot, enhancing a good digital camera work. I also liked the soundtrack, it's a mix of classic, jazz and even Leonard Cohen sounds right for a change. 8/10 on my personal scale - certainly worth seeing.