madpigmadpig First, the good points - all technical. The visual storytelling style and costume/set design are excellent, as is the general editing. The casting is passable as far as acting ability, although nobody really looks the way they're portrayed.What I hate about this film is that it wasted my time. It started out decent enough, but about halfway through the two supporting characters became illogically bizarre out of nowhere and just gradually became more so from then on. This also threw what little storyline/plot there was completely out the window in favor of all the characters running around doing uncharacteristically brainless and random things like chickens with their heads cut off. The ending was extremely abrupt, to the point where the credits starting was a surprise, and pointless to such a degree where I have to seriously wonder whether the script had even been finished when shooting began or whether they just tried to write as they went along and ended the movie when they simply used up all of their allowed runtime. What an incredible waste of time, money, and technical talent. The writers for this, if you really want to call them writers, should thoroughly reproach themselves for doing such a poor job of it on this film.

larryanderson If you go to the 9 minute mark of the movie, where John Cusack tries to scam the bartender, you will see Reg Park playing on the bar TV in the background. They are showing HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN, (1961). This is the scene where the bartender hits Roy in the stomach causing all the internal damage. Larry Anderson, Canada

SnoopyStyle Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston) is working for mobster Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle) placing bets in horse races. Her estranged son Roy Dillon (John Cusack) does small cons. His girlfriend Myra Langtry (Annette Bening) uses sex. Roy gets caught and gets hit. Lilly takes him to the hospital and misses a job. Bobo punishes her. Myra wants Roy to invest in her scheme. It's the life of grift.These are three individual performances that are all powerful in their own way. Huston is simply incredible. She is so many different notes. Bening is using sex like pulling out her credit card. Cusack has his boyish charms but he's also so broken. These three characters are memorable.

adrongardner The Grifters is not really a movie, it's a language with verbs only about life and debt. It is an almost comic rhyme about punches to the gut and the moral ambiguities of being on the slide. Even for the con, life ain't free.The actors in this odyssey largely speak in physical grammar and the slick, witty and hard boiled dialog is largely muzak. Anjelica Houston's Lilly postures in brash suits like a school girl far beyond her years - even though she seen a few already. That's not to say Lilly doesn't utter a few daggers now and then - "My son will be all right, if not I'll have you killed."Cusack's Roy barely utters every meager syllable while clenching his gut with a half open stare. Roy sells self confidence and wants to be a real con, but never listens enough to mom, even though she wrote the book. Roy frequently brushes with dangers and somehow mom is always there to save his life. "Second time I gave it to you." Then there is Annette Bennign's Myra, Roy's giggle "Friend," trotting around like a bobble head fixture on a taxi dashboard with clip on earrings but garnering enough attention to slice you from behind for a dollar. You can well imagine she is a lot of people's friend. Just ask the landlord.Each of these performers puts in what well may be the best performance of their careers. Director Stephen Frears uses a restrained hand on Donald E. Westlake's literal script and largely lets the actors play this out on their own.So greed is good? Maybe for Myra. Ultimately The Grifters is about survival and the illusion of getting something for nothing. But even somewhere inside Roy knows not everything is a free ride, "Lilly, I guess I owe you my life.""You always did."